Parallel Cellular Automaton Algorithm for Failure Processes of Brittle Rocks

Abstract

As Failure evolution processes algorithms of brittle rocks usually comply with the Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) model, implementation efforts using such hardware resources are suitable. Graphics processor (GPU) is available SIMD hardware component nowadays, which can lead to substantial increase of computing performance. In this paper we propose a novel parallel cellular automaton algorithm for failure evolution processes of brittle rocks based on GPU. The details of implementation and optimized methods are presented. The performance results show that our GPU implementation achieves 39 times faster than original algorithm on common general purpose processor (CPU).