Efficient parallel implementation of the lattice Boltzmann method on large clusters of graphic processing units

• 来源期刊: 科学通报(英文版)
• 学科: 工学
• 年，卷（期）: 2012,（7）
• 页码范围: 707-715
• 页数: 9页
• 分类号: TP391.41
• 语种: 中文

摘要

Many-core processors, such as graphic processing units (GPUs), are promising platforms for intrinsic parallel algorithms such as the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Although tremendous speedup has been obtained on a single GPU compared with mainstream CPUs, the performance of the LBM for multiple GPUs has not been studied extensively and systematically. In this article, we carry out LBM simulation on a GPU cluster with many nodes, each having multiple Fermi GPUs. Asynchronous execution with CUDA stream functions, OpenMP and non-blocking MPI communication are incorporated to improve efficiency. The algorithm is tested for two-dimensional Couette flow and the results are in good agreement with the analytical solution. For both the oneand two-dimensional decomposition of space, the algorithm performs well as most of the communication time is hidden. Direct numerical simulation of a two-dimensional gas-solid suspension containing more than one million solid particles and one billion gas lattice cells demonstrates the potential of this algorithm in large-scale engineering applications. The algorithm can be directly extended to the three-dimensional decomposition of space and other modeling methods including explicit grid-based methods.