EFFICIENT COMPUTATION FOR GENERALISED FREE-SURFACE MULTI-PHASE SMOOTHED PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS (SPH) USING GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNITS (GPUs)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Mechanical Aerospace and Civil Eng
Abstract
Great progress has been made in the last 20 years in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with major developments in commercial general-purpose codes and more specialised shallow flow and wave propagation modelling. However, complex, generally highly nonlinear and distorted, surface motion, involving for example wave breaking, bore propagation, aeration and debris transport, has remained largely intractable. In this respect the novel method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) holds great promise. SPH is a meshless method and possesses some unique advantages over conventional grid-based approaches; no explicit treatment of the free surface and no computational grid mean that sophisticated meshing is not needed for complex geometries. Recent theoretical advances have been proven in 2-D but the major practical limitation of the method lies in the very large number of particles required for converged solutions. To address this, High Performance Computing (HPC) has been applied in 3-D as well as 2-D in several academic and industrial research centres (EDF, VA TECH Hydro, ESI BV). There is a most attractive alternative however, originating from the computer games industry which has given rise to Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) of parallel architecture which may be exploited for SPH. The aim of this proposal is to exploit GPUs for 3-D free-surface problems, including violent and multi-phase effects, spanning a range of industries such as for offshore or marine engineers or naval architects, civil engineers undertaking flood risk management and other areas with complex free-surface, generally multi-phase flows such as in the nuclear industry.
Publications
Altomare C
(2014)
Numerical modelling of armour block sea breakwater with smoothed particle hydrodynamics
in Computers & Structures
Crespo A
(2015)
DualSPHysics: Open-source parallel CFD solver based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
in Computer Physics Communications
Domínguez J
(2013)
New multi-GPU implementation for smoothed particle hydrodynamics on heterogeneous clusters
in Computer Physics Communications
Gomez-Gesteira M
(2012)
SPHysics - development of a free-surface fluid solver - Part 1: Theory and formulations
in Computers & Geosciences
Gomez-Gesteira M
(2012)
SPHysics - development of a free-surface fluid solver - Part 2: Efficiency and test cases
in Computers & Geosciences
Heller V
(2016)
Composite modelling of subaerial landslide-tsunamis in different water body geometries and novel insight into slide and wave kinematics
in Coastal Engineering
Longshaw S
(2015)
Automotive fuel cell sloshing under temporally and spatially varying high acceleration using GPU-based Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
in Advances in Engineering Software
Mokos A
(2015)
Multi-phase SPH modelling of violent hydrodynamics on GPUs
in Computer Physics Communications
Mokos A
(2016)
A multi-phase particle shifting algorithm for SPH simulations of violent hydrodynamics with a large number of particles
in Journal of Hydraulic Research
Valdez-Balderas D
(2013)
Towards accelerating smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations for free-surface flows on multi-GPU clusters
in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing
| Description | The project has lead to the successful developments of using graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate the simulations of the novel meshless method smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to simulate violent hydrodynamics. This has lead to the development of: 1. a Multi-GPU SPH code to run 1 billion particle simulations in 3-D. This includes: (i) identification of successful algorithms to run large SPH simulations over many GPU cards (64 no.) (ii) application to cases that were beyond practical use before. 2. a two-phase SPH GPU code to simulate phenomena such as wave breaking, fuel tank sloshing, etc. This includes: (i) identification of the optimum algorithms for implementing a multi-phase SPH code on a GPU using CUDA. (ii) The formulation of a new particle shifting algorithm to maintain numerical stability of multi-phase simulations. 3. Updated releases of the open-source DualSPHysics code which include the latest theoretical developments. Version 4.2 includes various SPH features including the multi-phase air-water simulation technology from this project. |
| Exploitation Route | All of our codes are free and open source: http://www.sphysics.org http://www.dual.sphysics.org Universities and Industrial companies can download the software and use it for their own purpose. Hence, we encourage others to use our work and improve it! |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Education,Energy,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| URL | https://sph-manchester.weebly.com/ |
| Description | The project has lead to the successful developments of using graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate the simulations of the novel meshless method smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to simulate violent hydrodynamics. This has lead to the development of: 1. a Multi-GPU SPH code to run 1 billion particle simulations in 3-D 2. a two-phase SPH GPU code to simulate phenomena such as wave breaking, fuel tank sloshing, etc. released as open-source code 3. Updated releases of the open-source DualSPHysics codes which include the latest theoretical developments. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Education |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Generalised high-order Eulerian Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics for internal flows applied to flow-induced vibration and nuclear tube banks |
| Amount | £691,208 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R005729/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | RCUK Newton Confap with University of Brasilia |
| Amount | £13,975 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/M029786/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 03/2016 |
| Description | University of Manchester, Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) |
| Amount | £51,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Manchester |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2012 |
| End | 09/2012 |
| Description | X-MED: EXtreme Loading of Marine Energy Devices due to Waves, Current, Flotsam and Mammal Impact |
| Amount | £901,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/J010235/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2012 |
| End | 09/2013 |
| Description | eCSE07-16 Massively Parallel OpenMP-MPI Implementation of the SPH Code DualSPHysics |
| Amount | £78,746 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | eCSE07-16 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Department | ARCHER Service |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2016 |
| End | 07/2017 |
| Title | DualSPHysics v4.0 - open-source SPH code |
| Description | The latest version of the popular open-source smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code, DualSPHysics, version 4.0 |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | 2nd DualSPHysics Users Workshop, held at University of Manchester December 2016 attended by 56 delegates from around the world. |
| URL | http://www.dual.sphysics.org |
| Title | Multi-GPU SPH code |
| Description | A Multi-GPU SPH code that can run 3-D simulations over many GPUs enabling the simulations with billions of particles |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Apart from a CPC journal publication, we plan to release the multi-GPU code on the DualSPHysics website. |
| Title | Two-Phase SPH GPU code |
| Description | The PhD work lead to the development of the first GPU-based water-air SPH solver to be used to simulate cases such as sloshing, wave breaking, etc. Once the code has been suitably prepared, the plan is to release this on the DualSPHysics website. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Impacts are awaiting code release. |
| Description | DualSPHysics |
| Organisation | University of Parma |
| Department | Department of Civil Environmental, Land Management Engineering and Architecture (DICATeA) |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The DualSPHysics project is an international collaboration between the Universities of Manchester & Vigo that has lead to the open-source DualSPHysics software (http://www.dual.sphysics.org) which uses the acceleration of graphics processing units (GPUs) to make practical simulations of violent free-surface applications possible for industry. Downloaded 1000s of times, it is possibly the most-used SPH software in the world (e.g. see follow-on funding for an example) We have hosted visitors from U-Vigo and U-Parma multiple times, where they have contributed directly to the research publications output. They are the co-leaders of the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The DualSPHysics project is an international collaboration between the Universities of Manchester and Vigo that has lead to the open-source DualSPHysics software (http://www.dual.sphysics.org) which uses the acceleration of graphics processing units (GPUs) to make practical simulations of violent free-surface applications possible for industry. Downloaded 1000s of times, it is possibly the most-used SPH software in the world (e.g. see follow-on funding for an example) We have visited U-Vigo and U-Parma multiple times, where we have contributed directly to the research publications output. They are the co-leaders of the project. |
| Impact | The DualSPHysics software DualSPHysics Users Workshops |
| Description | DualSPHysics |
| Organisation | University of Vigo |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The DualSPHysics project is an international collaboration between the Universities of Manchester & Vigo that has lead to the open-source DualSPHysics software (http://www.dual.sphysics.org) which uses the acceleration of graphics processing units (GPUs) to make practical simulations of violent free-surface applications possible for industry. Downloaded 1000s of times, it is possibly the most-used SPH software in the world (e.g. see follow-on funding for an example) We have hosted visitors from U-Vigo and U-Parma multiple times, where they have contributed directly to the research publications output. They are the co-leaders of the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The DualSPHysics project is an international collaboration between the Universities of Manchester and Vigo that has lead to the open-source DualSPHysics software (http://www.dual.sphysics.org) which uses the acceleration of graphics processing units (GPUs) to make practical simulations of violent free-surface applications possible for industry. Downloaded 1000s of times, it is possibly the most-used SPH software in the world (e.g. see follow-on funding for an example) We have visited U-Vigo and U-Parma multiple times, where we have contributed directly to the research publications output. They are the co-leaders of the project. |
| Impact | The DualSPHysics software DualSPHysics Users Workshops |
| Title | DualSPHysics Software v4 |
| Description | DualSPHysics is based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics model named SPHysics (www.sphysics.org). The code is developed to study free-surface flow phenomena where Eulerian methods can be difficult to apply, such as waves or impact of dam-breaks on off-shore structures. DualSPHysics is a set of C++, CUDA and Java codes designed to deal with real-life engineering problems. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Versions 1, 2 and 3 have lead to follow-on grants from EPSRC, U-Man KTA and collaborations with companies such as a Leading Motorsport Company, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). 1st DualSPHysics Users Workshop took place at the University of Manchester, September 2015. |
| URL | http://www.dual.sphysics.org |
| Title | DualSPHysics Software v4.2 |
| Description | DualSPHysics is based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics model named SPHysics (www.sphysics.org). The code is developed to study free-surface flow phenomena where Eulerian methods can be difficult to apply, such as waves or impact of dam-breaks on off-shore structures. DualSPHysics is a set of C++, CUDA and Java codes designed to deal with real-life engineering problems. This LATEST VERSION, 4.2, included the multi-phase air-water technology developed during this grant. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Versions 1, 2 and 3 have lead to follow-on grants from EPSRC, U-Man KTA and collaborations with companies such as a Leading Motorsport Company, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). 1st DualSPHysics Users Workshop took place at the University of Manchester, September 2015. 2nd DualSPHysics Users Workshop took place at the University of Manchester, December 2016. 3rd DualSPHysics Users Workshop took place at the University of Parma, Italy, October 2017. |
| URL | http://www.dual.sphysics.org |
| Title | DualSPHysics software v3 |
| Description | DualSPHysics is based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics model named SPHysics (www.sphysics.org). The code is developed to study free-surface flow phenomena where Eulerian methods can be difficult to apply, such as waves or impact of dam-breaks on off-shore structures. DualSPHysics is a set of C++, CUDA and Java codes designed to deal with real-life engineering problems. The code has been downloaded 1000s of times and is widely used in academia. It is slightly more difficult to know how well used in industry without companies reporting its usage. A Users Workshop is planned for 2015 to assess this. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Versions 1, 2 & 3 have lead to follow-on grants from EPSRC, U-Man KTA and collaborations with companies such as a Leading Motorsport Company, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) |
| URL | http://www.dual.sphysics.org |
| Title | Multi-GPU SPH code |
| Description | A Multi-GPU SPH code that can run 3-D simulations over many GPUs enabling the simulations with billions of particles |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Apart from a CPC journal publication, we plan to release the multi-GPU code on the DualSPHysics website once the code has been made releasable. |
| Title | Two-Phase SPH GPU code |
| Description | The PhD work lead to the development of the first GPU-based water-air SPH solver to be used to simulate cases such as sloshing, wave breaking, etc. Once the code has been suitably prepared, the plan is to release this on the DualSPHysics website. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Impacts are awaiting code release. |
| Description | 1st DualSPHysics Users Workshop, University of Manchester, Sept 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 30 users of the open-source DualSPHysics software (released 2011 and updated since) attended the 2-day workshop run by me at the University of Manchester, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. The event consisted of lectures by core DualSPHysics developers, both at Manchester and from collaborating institutions, and lectures from users of the software including from Brazil and South Korea. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.dual.sphysics.org/usersworkshop/ |
| Description | 2nd DualSPHysics Users Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 56 users of the open-source DualSPHysics software (released 2011 and updated since) attended the 2-day workshop run by me at the University of Manchester, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. The event consisted of lectures by core DualSPHysics developers, both at Manchester and from collaborating institutions, and lectures from users of the software including from US, Canada, Europe, etc. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.dual.sphysics.org/usersworkshop/ |
| Description | Continual Professional Development (CPD) 2-day Course on SPH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On average 20 people attended a Continual Professional Development (CPD) 2-day Course on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) at the University of Manchester, held annually 2010-2014. Delegates were taken from the basics of the method to the latest research and shown how to use the state-of-the-art code DualSPHysics jointly developed by the University of Manchester and University of Vigo (Spain). Led to - follow-on grants with National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and a Leading Motorsport Company (University of Manchester Knowledge Transfer Account) - future academic collaborations with Flanders Hydraulics and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunia (UPC) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |
| Description | Running Training Days at annual International SPHERIC Workshop on SPH 2010-2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Each Training Day would have about 20-30 people attending and by the end of the day, they will have been trained to use the DualSPHysics software for their own use. The sessions are interactive and allow the people running the session (i.e. Manchester staff & students) to interact with the users of the software, engage with the problems they are trying to solve with our software and lead to discussions on new areas to develop and new potential collaborations. There are now multiple publications in the literature of groups around the world using the DualSPHysics software where the original contact was made at the Training Days. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |
| URL | http://spheric2014.cnam.fr/index.php?id=sph-training-day |