Development of parallel direct simulation Monte Carlo method using a cut-cell Cartesian grid on a single graphics processor

• DSMC with cut cells on a single GPU could be 30 times faster than a high-end CPU.
• Cut cells are shown to be very effective in dealing with complex geometry in DSMC.
• TAS and VTS schemes are used in a single-GPU DSMC code for improving performance.
• High-fidelity parallel DSMC simulations are demonstrated using a GPU.

This study developed a parallel two-dimensional direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method using a cut-cell Cartesian grid for treating geometrically complex objects using a single graphics processing unit (GPU). Transient adaptive sub-cell (TAS) and variable time-step (VTS) approaches were implemented to reduce computation time without a loss in accuracy. The proposed method was validated using two benchmarks: 2D hypersonic flow of nitrogen over a ramp and 2D hypersonic flow of argon around a cylinder using various free-stream Knudsen numbers. We also detailed the influence of TAS and VTS on computational accuracy and efficiency. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of using TAS in combination with VTS in reducing computation times by more than 10×. Compared to the throughput of a single core Intel CPU, the proposed approach using a single GPU enables a 13–35× increase in speed, which varies according to the size of the problem and type of GPU used in the simulation. Finally, the transition from regular reflection to Mach reflection for supersonic flow through a channel was simulated to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach in reproducing flow fields in challenging problems.