Free surface flow simulations on GPGPUs using the LBM

Abstract

In this paper, we present the implementation of a volume-of-fluid-(VOF)- based algorithm for the simulation of free-surface flow problems on general purpose graphical processing units (GPGPUs). For the solution of the flow field and the additional advection equation for the VOF fill level, the lattice Boltzmann method on the basis of an MRT collision operator is used. A Smagorinsky LES model serves to capture the small-scale turbulent structures of the flow. We show that despite the additional non-local operations near the phase interface, we end up with an algorithm with good overall performance, which is suitable for the simulation of demanding real-world engineering applications. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.