Efficient 3D DNS of gas–solid flows on Fermi GPGPU

Three-dimensional (3D) gas–solid Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) requires huge computational resources which imposes a great challenge to both current hardware and software conditions. In this article, an efficient implementation of 3D gas–solid DNS with Lattice Boltzmann Method and Discrete Element Method is developed on a Fermi GPGPU. An Immersed Moving Boundary approach is utilized to impose the no-slip condition at particle–fluid interfaces. Optimization strategies such as changing the sequence of collision and propagation in grid evolution and making multiple kernel executing concurrently are discussed in detail. This algorithm is demonstrated to be competitive both in terms of accuracy and performance. Approximately 131 Millions of Lattices Update Per Second have been achieved, indicating that this GPGPU implementation is very suitable for 3D gas–solid DNS.

► Exchange grid collision and propagation sequence to improve modeling speed.
► Let multiple kernels executing concurrently to alleviate total speed by about 4%.
► Introduce a rather simple control volume calculation method in IMB.
► About 27-fold speedup has achieved for Tesla C2050 to Intel Core i5.