GPU-accelerated Cellular Automaton Model for Dendritic Growth during Directional Solidification

Abstract

Based on the cellular automaton model and GPU parallel computing technology, the cellular automaton computing model for dendritic growth during the solidification process was realized on a single GPU card. Taking Al-Cu binary alloy as object, the single equiaxed crystal growth process and columnar crystal growth process were numerically simulated. With the increase of undercooling degree, secondary and tertiary dendrite arms are gradually developed in equiaxed dendrite, where the secondary dendrite arms of non-preferentially oriented dendrites are blocked by the preferentially oriented dendrites during directionally solidified dendrite competition growth, which is then eliminated. Comparison of the calculation speed with the CPU-based parallel model verifies the acceleration effect of the GPU-based calculation model, indicating that the speedup ratio can reach up to 10.90.