Using CUDA architecture for computer simulations of thermomechanical phenomena

This paper presents a simulation of the casting solidification process performed on graphics processors compatible with nVidia CUDA architecture. Indispensable for the parallel implementation of a computer simulation of the solidification process, it was necessary to modify the numerical model. The new approach shown in this paper allows the process of matrix building to be divided into two independent phases. The first is independent from the nodal temperature values computed in successive time-steps. The second is performed on the basis of nodal temperature values, but does not require a description of the finite element mesh. This phase is performed in each time step of the simulation of the casting solidification process. The separation of these two phases permits an effective implementation of the simulation software of the casting solidification process on the nVidia CUDA architecture or any other multi-/manycore architecture. The use of GPUs nVidia for the implementation of a computer simulation of the solidification process significantly reduced the waiting time for results. In the course of computer simulations important speedup of the computations was observed.