Domain decomposition based coupling between the lattice Boltzmann method and traditional CFD methods—Part I: Formulation and application to the 2-D Burgers’ equation

The lattice Boltzmann method is being increasingly employed in the field of computational fluid dynamics due to its computational efficiency. Floating-point operations in the lattice Boltzmann method involve local data and therefore allow easy cache optimization and parallelization. Due to this, the cache-optimized lattice Boltzmann method has superior computational performance over traditional finite difference methods for solving unsteady flow problems. When solving steady flow problems, the explicit nature of the lattice Boltzmann discretization limits the time step size and therefore the efficiency of the lattice Boltzmann method for steady flows. To quantify the computational performance of the lattice Boltzmann method for steady flows, a comparison study between the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the alternating direction implicit (ADI) method was performed using the 2-D steady Burgers’ equation. The comparison study showed that the LBM performs comparatively poor on high-resolution meshes due to smaller time step sizes, while on coarser meshes where the time step size is similar for both methods, the cache-optimized LBM performance is superior. Because flow domains can be discretized with multiblock grids consisting of coarse and fine grid blocks, the cache-optimized LBM can be applied on the coarse grid block while the traditional implicit methods are applied on the fine grid blocks. This paper finds the coupled cache-optimized lattice Boltzmann-ADI method to be faster by a factor of 4.5 over the traditional methods while maintaining similar accuracy.     

A set of compact finite-difference approximations to first and second derivatives,related to the extended Numerov method of Chawla on nonuniform grids

Summary The extended Numerov scheme of Chawla, adopted for nonuniform grids, is a useful compact finite-difference discretisation, suitable for the numerical solution of boundary value problems in singularly perturbed second order non-linear ordinary differential equations. A new set of three-point compact approximations to first and second derivatives, related to the Chawla scheme and valid for nonuniform grids, is developed in the present work. The approximations economically re-use intermediate quantities occurring in the Chawla scheme. The theoretical orders of accuracy are equal four for the central and one-sided first derivative approximations obtained, whereas the central second derivative formula is either fourth, third, or second order accurate, depending on the grid ratio. The approximations can be used for accurate a posteriori derivative evaluations. A Hermitian interpolation polynomial, consistent with the derivative approximations, is also derived. The values of the polynomial can be used, among other things, for guiding adaptive grid refinement. Accuracy orders of the new derivative approximations, and of the interpolating polynomial, are verified by computational experiments.      

Unstructured lattice Boltzmann equation with memory

Starting from a second-order differential form of the semi-discrete Boltzmann equation, we construct a new finite-volume lattice Boltzmann equation on unstructured grids (ULBE). The new scheme (ULBE with memory) is demonstrated for the case of a Taylor-vortex flow and shown to produce stable and accurate results with time-step more than an order of magnitude above the standard LBE stability threshold.     

A cache‐efficient implementation of the lattice Boltzmann method for the two‐dimensional diffusion equation

The lattice Boltzmann method is an important technique for the numerical solution of partial differential equations because it has nearly ideal scalability on parallel computers for many applications. However, to achieve the scalability and speed potential of the lattice Boltzmann technique, the issues of data reusability in cache‐based computer architectures must be addressed. Utilizing the two‐dimensional diffusion equation, , this paper examines cache optimization for the lattice Boltzmann method in both serial and parallel implementations. In this study, speedups due to cache optimization were found to be 1.9–2.5 for the serial implementation and 3.6–3.8 for the parallel case in which the domain decomposition was optimized for stride‐one access. In the parallel non‐cached implementation, the method of domain decomposition (horizontal or vertical) used for parallelization did not significantly affect the compute time. In contrast, the cache‐based implementation of the lattice Boltzmann method was significantly faster when the domain decomposition was optimized for stride‐one access. Additionally, the cache‐optimized lattice Boltzmann method in which the domain decomposition was optimized for stride‐one access displayed superlinear scalability on all problem sizes as the number of processors was increased. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Extrapolation Cascadic Multigrid Method Combined with a Fourth-Order Compact Scheme for 3D Poisson Equation

Extrapolation cascadic multigrid (EXCMG) method is an efficient multigrid method which has mainly been used for solving the two-dimensional elliptic boundary value problems with linear finite element discretization in the existing literature. In this paper, we develop an EXCMG method to solve the three-dimensional Poisson equation on rectangular domains by using the compact finite difference (FD) method with unequal meshsizes in different coordinate directions. The resulting linear system from compact FD discretization is solved by the conjugate gradient (CG) method with a relative residual stopping criterion. By combining the Richardson extrapolation and tri-quartic Lagrange interpolation for the numerical solutions from two-level of grids (current and previous grids), we are able to produce an extremely accurate approximation of the actual numerical solution on the next finer grid, which can greatly reduce the number of relaxation sweeps needed. Additionally, a simple method based on the midpoint extrapolation formula is used for the fourth-order FD solutions on two-level of grids to achieve sixth-order accuracy on the entire fine grid cheaply and directly. The gradient of the numerical solution can also be easily obtained through solving a series of tridiagonal linear systems resulting from the fourth-order compact FD discretizations. Numerical results show that our EXCMG method is much more efficient than the classical V-cycle and W-cycle multigrid methods. Moreover, only few CG iterations are required on the finest grid to achieve full fourth-order accuracy in both the \(L^2\)-norm and \(L^{\infty }\)-norm for the solution and its gradient when the exact solution belongs to \(C^6\). Finally, numerical result shows that our EXCMG method is still effective when the exact solution has a lower regularity, which widens the scope of applicability of our EXCMG method.     

A direct-forcing immersed boundary method for the thermal lattice Boltzmann method

In this study, a direct-forcing immersed boundary method (IBM) for thermal lattice Boltzmann method (TLBM) is proposed to simulate the non-isothermal flows. The direct-forcing IBM formulas for thermal equations are derived based on two TLBM models: a double-population model with a simplified thermal lattice Boltzmann equation (Model 1) and a hybrid model with an advection–diffusion equation of temperature (Model 2). As an interface scheme, which is required due to a mismatch between boundary and computational grids in the IBM, the sharp interface scheme based on second-order bilinear and linear interpolations (instead of the diffuse interface scheme, which uses discrete delta functions) is adopted to obtain the more accurate results. The proposed methods are validated through convective heat transfer problems with not only stationary but also moving boundaries – the natural convection in a square cavity with an eccentrically located cylinder and a cold particle sedimentation in an infinite channel. In terms of accuracy, the results from the IBM based on both models are comparable and show a good agreement with those from other numerical methods. In contrast, the IBM based on Model 2 is more numerically efficient than the IBM based on Model 1.     

An upwind discretization scheme for the finite volume lattice Boltzmann method

The fact that the classic lattice Boltzmann method is restricted to Cartesian Grids has inspired several researchers to apply Finite Volume [Nannelli F, Succi S. The lattice Boltzmann equation on irregular lattices. J Stat Phys 1992;68:401–7; Peng G, Xi H, Duncan C, Chou SH. Finite volume scheme for the lattice Boltzmann method on unstructured meshes. Phys Rev E 1999;59:4675–82; Chen H. Volumetric formulation of the lattice Boltzmann method for fluid dynamics: basic concept. Phys Rev E 1998;58:3955–63] or Finite Element [Lee T, Lin CL. A characteristic Galerkin method for discrete Boltzmann equation. J Comp Phys 2001;171:336–56; Shi X, Lin J, Yu Z. Discontinuous Galerkin spectral element lattice Boltzmann method on triangular element. Int J Numer Methods Fluids 2003;42:1249–61] methods to the Discrete Boltzmann equation. The finite volume method proposed by Peng et al. works on unstructured grids, thus allowing an increased geometrical flexibility. However, the method suffers from substantial numerical instability compared to the standard LBE models. The computational efficiency of the scheme is not competitive with standard methods.We propose an alternative way of discretizing the convection operator using an upwind scheme, as opposed to the central scheme described by Peng et al. We apply our method to some test problems in two spatial dimensions to demonstrate the improved stability of the new scheme and the significant improvement in computational efficiency. Comparisons with a lattice Boltzmann solver working on a hierarchical grid were done and we found that currently finite volume methods for the discrete Boltzmann equation are not yet competitive as stand alone fluid solvers.     

Performance analysis of single‐phase,multiphase, and multicomponent lattice‐Boltzmann fluid flow simulations on GPU clusters

The lattice‐Boltzmann method is well suited for implementation in single‐instruction multiple‐data (SIMD) environments provided by general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs). This paper discusses the integration of these GPGPU programs with OpenMP to create lattice‐Boltzmann applications for multi‐GPU clusters. In addition to the standard single‐phase single‐component lattice‐Boltzmann method, the performances of more complex multiphase, multicomponent models are also examined. The contributions of various GPU lattice‐Boltzmann parameters to the performance are examined and quantified with a statistical model of the performance using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). By examining single‐ and multi‐GPU lattice‐Boltzmann simulations with ANOVA, we show that all the lattice‐Boltzmann simulations primarily depend on effects corresponding to simulation geometry and decomposition, and not on the architectural aspects of GPU. Additionally, using ANOVA we confirm that the metrics of Efficiency and Utilization are not suitable for memory‐bandwidth‐dependent codes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种新的离散格子气模型及其在自然场景仿真中的应用

自然气象场景的模拟与大气流体运动模拟密切相关。三维的离散格子气模型需要采用复杂的FCHC网格方能满足流体运动模拟的对称性要求。本文提出了一种基于翻转概率的离散格子气模型,在正交三维网格上实现了流体运动的模拟,在满足对称性要求的前提下,实现了离散格子气模型的快速模拟。本文利用该模型实现了云景仿真的模拟。实验证证明,这种模型对于流体模拟是有效的。     

Artificial compressibility method and lattice Boltzmann method: Similarities and differences

The artificial compressibility method and the lattice Boltzmann method yield the solutions of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in the limit of the vanishing Mach number. The inclusion of the bulk viscosity is considered to be one of the reasons for the success of the lattice Boltzmann method at least in the 2D case. In the present paper, the robustness of the artificial compressibility method is enhanced by introducing a new dissipation term, which makes high cell-Reynolds number computation possible. The increase of the stability is also confirmed in the linear stability analysis; the magnitude of the eigenvalues are drastically reduced for low resolution. Comparisons are made with the lattice Boltzmann method. It is confirmed that the fortified ACM is more robust as well as more accurate than the lattice Boltzmann method.     

An adaptive scheme using hierarchical grids for lattice Boltzmann multi-phase flow simulations

The lattice Boltzmann (LB) method is extended and adapted to simulate multi-phase flows on non-uniform tree-type grids. Our model is an extension of the model developed by Gunstensen [Gunstensen AK, Rothman D. Lattice Boltzmann model of immiscible fluids. Phys Rev A 1991;43(8):4320–4327], which is based on the Rothman–Keller model [Rothman DH, Keller JM. Immiscible cellular automaton fluids. J Stat Phys 1988;52:1119–1127]. A first approach we use an a priori grid refinement. We find that the maximum number of possible grid levels for problems with dominant capillary forces is very restricted, if the physical interface is allowed to pass over grid interfaces. Thus a second approach based on adaptive grids was developed, where the physical interface is always discretized on the finest grid level. Efficient and flexible data structures have been developed to manage the remeshing. The application of the scheme for a rising bubble in three dimensions shows very good agreement with the semi-analytical solution and demonstrates the efficiency of our approach.     

High-Quality Volumetric Reconstruction on Optimal Lattices for Computed Tomography

Within the context of emission tomography, we study volumetric reconstruction methods based on the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. We show, for the first time, the equivalence of the standard implementation of the EM-based reconstruction with an implementation based on hardware-accelerated volume rendering for nearest-neighbor (NN) interpolation. This equivalence suggests that higher-order kernels should be used with caution and do not necessarily lead to better performance. We also show that the EM algorithm can easily be adapted for different lattices, the body-centered cubic (BCC) one in particular. For validation purposes, we use the 3D version of the Shepp-Logan synthetic phantom, for which we derive closed-form analytical expressions of the projection data. The experimental results show the theoretically-predicted optimality of NN interpolation in combination with the EM algorithm, for both the noiseless and the noisy case. Moreover, reconstruction on the BCC lattice leads to superior accuracy, more compact data representation, and better noise reduction compared to the Cartesian one. Finally, we show the usefulness of the proposed method for optical projection tomography of a mouse embryo.     

Lattice Boltzmann Models for Anisotropic Diffusion of Images

The lattice Boltzmann method has attracted more and more attention as an alternative numerical scheme to traditional numerical methods for solving partial differential equations and modeling physical systems. The idea of the lattice Boltzmann method is to construct a simplified discrete microscopic dynamics to simulate the macroscopic model described by the partial differential equations. The use of the lattice Boltzmann method has allowed the study of a broad class of systems that would have been difficult by other means. The advantage of the lattice Boltzmann method is that it provides easily implemented fully parallel algorithms and the capability of handling complicated boundaries. In this paper, we present two lattice Boltzmann models for nonlinear anisotropic diffusion of images. We show that image feature selective diffusion (smoothing) can be achieved by making the relaxation parameter in the lattice Boltzmann equation be image feature and direction dependent. The models naturally lead to the numerical algorithms that are easy to implement. Experimental results on both synthetic and real images are described.     

Accurate adaptive level set method and sharpening technique for three dimensional deforming interfaces

In this paper, we demonstrate improved accuracy of the level set method for resolving deforming interfaces by proposing two key elements: (1) accurate level set solutions on adapted Cartesian grids by judiciously choosing interpolation polynomials in regions of different grid levels and (2) enhanced re-initialization by an interface sharpening procedure. The level set equation is solved using a fifth order WENO scheme or a second order central differencing scheme depending on availability of uniform stencils at each grid point. Grid adaptation criteria are determined so that the Hamiltonian functions at nodes adjacent to interfaces are always calculated by the fifth order WENO scheme. This selective usage between the fifth order WENO and second order central differencing schemes is confirmed to give more accurate results compared to those in literature for standard test problems. In order to further improve accuracy especially near thin filaments, we suggest an artificial sharpening method, which is in a similar form with the conventional re-initialization method but utilizes sign of curvature instead of sign of the level set function. Consequently, volume loss due to numerical dissipation on thin filaments is remarkably reduced for the test problems.     

Adjoint parameter sensitivity analysis for the hydrodynamic lattice Boltzmann method with applications to design optimization

We present an adjoint parameter sensitivity analysis formulation and solution strategy for the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The focus is on design optimization applications, in particular topology optimization. The lattice Boltzmann method is briefly described with an in-depth discussion of solid boundary conditions. We show that a porosity model is ideally suited for topology optimization purposes and models no-slip boundary conditions with sufficient accuracy when compared to interpolation bounce-back conditions. Augmenting the porous boundary condition with a shaping factor, we define a generalized geometry optimization formulation and derive the corresponding sensitivity analysis for the single relaxation LBM for both topology and shape optimization applications. Using numerical examples, we verify the accuracy of the analytical sensitivity analysis through a comparison with finite differences. In addition, we show that for fluidic topology optimization a scaled volume constraint should be used to obtain the desired “0-1” optimal solutions.     

Modelling solute transport in shallow water with the lattice Boltzmann method

The lattice Boltzmann method is used to investigate the solute transport in shallow water flows. Shallow water equations are solved using the lattice Boltzmann equation on a D2Q9 lattice with multiple-relaxation-time (MRT-LBM) and Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK-LBM) terms separately, and the advection–diffusion equation is also solved with a LBM-BGK on a D2Q5 lattice. Three cases: open channel flow with side discharge, shallow recirculation flow and flow in a harbour are simulated to verify the described methods. Agreements between predictions and experiments are satisfactory. In side discharge flow, the reattachment length for different ratios of side discharge velocity to main channel velocity has been studied in detail. Furthermore, the performance of MRT-LBM and BGK-LBM for these three cases has been investigated. It is found that LBM-MRT has better stability and is able to satisfactorily simulate flows with higher Reynolds number. The study shows that the lattice Boltzmann method is simple and accurate for simulating solute transport in shallow water flows, and hence it can be applied to a wide range of environmental flow problems.     

A unified approach for nonslip and slip boundary conditions in the lattice Boltzmann method

This work proposed a unified approach to impose both nonslip and slip boundary conditions for the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). By introducing the tangential momentum accommodation coefficient (TMAC), the present implementation can determine the change of the tangential momentum on the wall and then impose the correct boundary conditions for LBM. The simulation results demonstrate that this implementation is equivalent to the first-order slip model.     

Simple and accurate scheme for fluid velocity interpolation for Eulerian-Lagrangian computation of dispersed flows in 3D curvilinear grids

Particle tracking in turbulent flows in complex domains requires accurate interpolation of the fluid velocity field. If grids are non-orthogonal and curvilinear, the most accurate available interpolation methods fail. We propose an accurate interpolation scheme based on Taylor series expansion of the local fluid velocity about the grid point nearest to the desired location. The scheme is best suited for curvilinear grids with non-orthogonal computational cells. We present the scheme with second-order accuracy, yet the order of accuracy of the method can be adapted to that of the Navier-Stokes solver.An application to particle dispersion in a turbulent wavy channel is presented, for which the scheme is tested against standard linear interpolation. Results show that significant discrepancies can arise in the particle displacement produced by the two schemes, particularly in the near-wall region which is often discretized with highly-distorted computational cells.     

异构平台下格子Boltzmann方法实现及性能分析

对CPU+GPU异构平台下的多种并行编程模式进行了研究,并针对格子Boltzmann方法实现了CUDA,MPI+CUDA,MPI+OpenMP+CUDA多级并行算法。结果表明,算法具有较好的加速性能;提出的根据计算量比例参数调节CPU和GPU之间负载均衡的方法,对于在异构平台上实现多级并行处理及资源的有效利用具有一定的参考和应用价值。     

Numerical simulation of viscous flow over non-smooth surfaces

The incompressible viscous flow over several non-smooth surfaces is simulated numerically by using the lattice Boltzmann method. A numerical strategy for dealing with a curved boundary with second-order accuracy for velocity field is presented. The drag evaluation is performed by the momentum-exchange method. The streamline contours are obtained over surfaces with different shapes, including circular concave, circular convex, triangular concave, triangular convex, regular sinusoidal wavy and irregular sinusoidal wavy, are obtained. The flow patterns are discussed in detail. The velocity profiles over different kinds of non-smooth surfaces are investigated. The numerical results show that the lattice Boltzmann method is reliable, accurate, easy to implement, and can provide valuable help for some engineering practices.