AutoMat: automatic differentiation for generalized standard materials on GPUs

We propose a universal method for the evaluation of generalized standard materials that greatly simplifies the material law implementation process. By means of automatic differentiation and a numerical integration scheme, AutoMat reduces the implementation effort to two potential functions. By moving AutoMat to the GPU, we close the performance gap to conventional evaluation routines and demonstrate in detail that the expression level reverse mode of automatic differentiation as well as its extension to second order derivatives can be applied inside CUDA kernels. We underline the effectiveness and the applicability of AutoMat by integrating it into the FFT-based homogenization scheme of Moulinec and Suquet and discuss the benefits of using AutoMat with respect to runtime and solution accuracy for an elasto-viscoplastic example.

Automated summary

This study introduces a universal method for evaluating generalized standard materials, which greatly simplifies the material law implementation process. By utilizing automatic differentiation and numerical integration, AutoMat reduces the implementation effort to two potential functions and achieves comparable performance on GPU to traditional evaluation routines.