Abstract: Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is one of several techniques for adapting the spatial resolution of a simulation in particular regions of the spatial domain. Block-structured AMR specifically refines the mesh by defining locally structured regions with finer spatial, and possibly temporal, resolution. This combination of locally structured meshes within an irregular global hierarchy is in some sense the best of both worlds in that it enables regular local data access while enabling greater flexibility in the overall computation.
Originally, block-structured AMR was designed for solving hyperbolic conservation laws with explicit time-stepping; in this case, the changes to solution methodology in transforming a single-level solver to an AMR-based solver are relatively straightforward. AMR has come a long way, however, and the more complex the simulation, the more complex the changes to effectively use AMR. One can even consider whether to solve the same equations at all levels.
In this talk I will give an overview of block-structured AMR and focus on a few key exemplars for how to think about adaptivity for multiphysics simulations.