The application of small peripheral array processors to the modeling of distributed parameter systems

Abstract

In the modeling of distributed parameter systems, it is sometimes necessary to utilize system observations to identify or estimate the boundary conditions of the field. For example, in dealing with water resources systems, it may be desired to identify and characterize sources of water pollution on the basis of measure ments of pollution concentrations downstream from suspected sources. A computational technique based on pattern recogni tion has been found to be relatively effective in this application. However, the algorithms involved are highly computation- intensive and therefore tend to place a considerable burden on most conventional digital computer facilities. Array processors, though primarily designed for signal processing are playing an increasingly important role in the modeling and simulation of physical systems. It is a purpose of this paper to describe the ap plication of a relatively small and inexpensive peripheral array processor to this problem and to evaluate its performance.