SOD2D: A GPU-enabled Spectral Finite Elements Method for compressible scale-resolving simulations

Abstract

As new supercomputer architectures become more heavily focused on using hardware accelerators, in particular general-purpose graphical processors, it is therefore relevant that algorithms for computational fluid dynamics, especially those targeting scale-resolving simulations, be designed in such a way as to make efficient use of such hardware.In this paper, we propose one such hardware-accelerated Continuous Galerkin Finite Elements model, aimed at handling simulations of turbulent compressible flows over complex geometries. As this model is intended for use in Large-Eddy and Direct Numerical simulations, it is necessary that the resulting scheme introduces only small amounts of artificial (numerical) diffusion for stabilization purposes. We achieve this through a combination of Spectral Finite Elements, operator splittings on the convective term, and the use of the Entropy Viscosity stabilization model adapted to spectral elements scheme.The paper will present the resulting algorithm, how it is made to work efficiently on the accelerators, and results obtained that demonstrate its high-accuracy capabilities.