A Simplified GPU Implementation of the Hybrid Lattice Boltzmann Model for Three-Dimensional High Rayleigh Number Flows

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the numerical performance of a hybrid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver for 3D natural convection. We propose to use the lattice Boltzmann equations with the two-relaxation time approximation for the fluid flow, whereas thermodynamics is described by the macroscopic energy equation with the finite difference solution. An in-house parallel graphics processing unit (GPU) code is written in MATLAB. The execution time of every single step of the algorithm is studied. It is found that the explicit finite difference scheme is not as stable as the implicit one for high Rayleigh numbers. The most time-consuming steps are energy and collide, while stream, boundary conditions, and macroscopic parameters recovery are executed in no time, despite the grid size under consideration. GPU code is more than 30 times faster than a typical low-end central processing unit-based code. The proposed hybrid model can be used for real-time simulation of physical systems under laminar flow behavior and on mid-range segment GPUs.