MPI + OpenCL implementation of a phase-field method incorporating CALPHAD description of Gibbs energies on heterogeneous computing platforms

Abstract

Phase-field method uses a non-conserved order parameter to define the phase state of a system and is a versatile method for moving boundary problems. It is a method of choice for simulating microstructure evolution in the domain of materials engineering. Solution of phase-field evolution equations avoids explicit tracking of interfaces and is often implemented on a structured grid to capture microstructure evolution in a simple and elegant manner. Restrictions on the grid size to accurately capture the interface curvature effects lead to large number of grid points in the computational domain and render the simulation computationally intensive for realistic simulations in 3D. However, the availability of powerful heterogeneous computing platforms and super clusters provides the advantage to perform large scale phase-field simulations efficiently. This paper discusses a portable implementation to extend simulations across multiple CPUs using MPI to include use of GPUs using OpenCL. The solution scheme adapts an isotropic stencil that avoids grid-induced anisotropy. Use of separate OpenCL kernels for problem specific portions of the code ensure that the approach can be extended to different problems. Performance analysis of parallel strategies used in the study illustrate the massively parallel computing possibility for phase-field simulations across heterogeneous platforms.