GPU IMPLEMENTATION OF A VISCOUS FLOW SOLVER ON UNSTRUCTURED GRIDS

Abstract

Graphics processing units have gained popularities in scientific computing over past several years due to their outstanding parallel computing capability. Computational fluid dynamics applications involve large amounts of calculations, therefore a latest GPU card is preferable of which the peak computing performance and memory bandwidth are much better than a contemporary high-end CPU. We herein focus on the detailed implementation of our GPU targeting Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations solver based on finite-volume method. The solver employs a vertex-centered scheme on unstructured grids for the sake of being capable of handling complex topologies. Multiple optimizations are carried out to improve the memory accessing performance and kernel utilization. Both steady and unsteady flow simulation cases are carried out using explicit Runge-Kutta scheme. The solver with GPU acceleration in this paper is demonstrated to have competitive advantages over the CPU targeting one.