Taking multi-physics simulations to the next level of efficiency using powerful computing technology
Challenge: When studying industrial processes like biomass combustion, particle sedimentation, iron production, or additive manufacturing, engineers often face computationally demanding multi-physics problems. These simulations involve discrete particles interacting with fluid phases and require significant computing resources. The time it takes to run these simulations is a major obstacle in applying this numerical approach to complex real-world scenarios.
Solution: Engineers have developed a co-located approach that allows for large-scale volume-coupled simulations. To illustrate its effectiveness, let's consider a scenario of a dam break with particles, where a column of water carries light and heavy particles falling in a closed box. In this case, we used 2.35 million particles and 10 million computational fluid dynamics (CFD) cells to evaluate performance. Engineers conducted scalability tests ranging from 4 nodes (112 cores) to 78 nodes (2184 cores) and achieved an efficiency of 73% compared to running the simulation on a single node. This means that the new approach significantly reduces the execution time, making it more applicable to complex scenarios.
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Source: ULHPC Demonstrators
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