Palabos-npFEM: Software for the Simulation of Cellular Blood Flow (Digital Blood)

Abstract

Palabos-npFEM is a computational framework for the simulation of blood flow with fully resolved constituents. The software resolves the trajectories and deformed state of blood cells, such as red blood cells and platelets, and the complex interaction between them. The tool combines the lattice Boltzmann solver Palabos for the simulation of blood plasma (fluid phase), a finite element method (FEM) solver for the resolution of blood cells (solid phase), and an immersed boundary method (IBM) for the coupling of the two phases. Palabos-npFEM provides, on top of a CPU-only version, the option to simulate the deformable bodies on GPUs, thus the code is tailored for the fastest supercomputers. The software is integrated in the Palabos core library, and is available on the Git repository https://gitlab.com/unigespc/palabos. It offers the possibility to simulate various setups, e.g. several geometries and blood parameters, and due to its modular design, it allows external solvers to readily replace the provided ones.