Date of Completion

3-21-2012

Embargo Period

3-13-2012

Advisors

Chih-Jen (Jackie) Sung; Mandhapati P. Raju

Field of Study

Mechanical Engineering

Degree

Master of Science

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

Graphic processing units (GPUs) are powerful graphics engines featuring high levels of parallelism and extreme memory bandwidth, which constitute a powerful computing platform to solve complex problems involving chemically reacting flows. In the present study, computer programs for combustion simulations with detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms were compiled in the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) language for NVIDIA GPU architecture. Ignition processes were simulated under constant pressure and constant volume conditions using an explicit 4th order Runge-Kutta algorithm for time integration. Sufficiently small time steps were identified with time scale analysis to ensure the integration stability. The program was validated with the results from simulations with CPUs using detailed mechanisms of various fuels including H2, and CH4. It was found that the GPU-accelerated simulations can be approximately 10-20 times faster than those on CPUs for solving identical problems. Furthermore, the newly implemented GPU solver for detailed chemical kinetics was employed for quasi 2-D simulations.

Major Advisor

Tianfeng Lu

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