Film shape calculations on supercomputers

Both scalar and vector operations are described to demonstrate usefulness of supercomputers (computers with peak computing speeds exceeding 100 million operative per second) in solving tribological problems. A simple kernel of the film shape calculations in an elastohydrodynamic lubricated rectangular contact is presented and the relevant equations are described. Both scalar and vector versions of the film shape code are presented. The run times of the two types of code indicate that over a 50-to-1 speedup of scalar to vector computational time for vector lengths typically used in elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis is obtained.