Chemical Mechanism Solvers in Air Quality Models

Abstract

The solution of chemical kinetics is one of the most computationally intensivetasks in atmospheric chemical transport simulations. Due to the stiff nature of the system,implicit time stepping algorithms which repeatedly solve linear systems of equations arenecessary. This paper reviews the issues and challenges associated with the construction ofefficient chemical solvers, discusses several families of algorithms, presents strategies forincreasing computational efficiency, and gives insight into implementing chemical solverson accelerated computer architectures.