Real-Time 2.5D Fluid Dynamics Simulation Using GPGPU

Žiga Leber

Supervisor(s): Niko Lukač

University of Maribor


Abstract: Realistic depiction of fluids has always presented a challenge in the modern entertainment industry, partially owing to the fact that the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid dynamics are notorious for being highly computationally intensive. As a solution, a simple approximative 2.5D fluid dynamics model is proposed based on Shallow Water Equations and Continuous Cellular Automata. In combination with the computational abilities of the modern CUDA-enabled graphics cards, the simulation with the proposed model coupled with rendering, can be performed in real-time. The method was tested on high-resolution digital terrain models, where visually convincing results were achieved; additionally, the simulation scales well with the input size. The CUDA-based approach achieved average speedups of 5.5 and 1.7 times in comparison to the single and multi-core CPU implementations, respectively.
Keywords: Graphics Hardware, Scientific Visualization
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Year: 2017