Multi-GPU implementation of a cellular automaton model for dendritic growth of binary alloy

A parallel three-dimensional (3D) cellular automaton (CA) model is developed for dendritic growth simulation during solidification of binary alloy. The CA model is implemented using the graphic processing unit (GPU). Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) is combined with Message Passing Interface (MPI) to perform large-scale simulation on the multi-GPU architecture. A CUDA-Aware OpenMPI is used to reduce the communication cost between different GPU cards. The accuracy and the speedup ratio of the CA model are investigated. First, the simulated steady-state tip velocity under different undercooling is compared with the LGK analytical solution. Then, dendritic growth during directional solidification and equiaxed multi-dendrite growth are simulated. Dendritic growth simulation with a domain size up to 453 million grids is performed. Finally, the speedup ratio of the CA model using four GPUs is compared with that using four CPU processes via MPI, which leads to a maximal speedup ratio of 152.19. The developed CA model achieves high parallel performance compared with the MPI-based parallel model. The developed CA model is capable of predicting the columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) event during directional solidification. The results indicate that increasing cooling rate promotes the occurrence of the equiaxed dendrites in the melt ahead of the solidification front, and equiaxed dendrites are prone to nucleate in the columnar dendrite groove zone when a middle cooling rate is applied. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

A parallel 3D cellular automaton model was developed for dendritic growth simulation during solidification of binary alloy, implemented using GPU with CUDA and MPI combination to achieve high parallel performance and reduce communication cost. The model accurately predicts the development of columnar and equiaxed dendrites during directional solidification at different cooling rates.