A parallel-GPU code for asteroid aggregation problems with angular particles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a GPU-accelerated code for simulating asteroid aggregation, capable of handling contact interactions between non-spherical bodies with improved performance over traditional methods.

Contribution

The work extends previous gravitational N-body simulation code to include contact interactions and leverages GPU parallelization for larger, more complex asteroid aggregation models.

Findings

Significant increase in the number of bodies simulated using GPU parallelization.

Implementation of both smooth and non-smooth contact interaction methods.

Performance comparison shows improved efficiency over direct N^2 integration.

Abstract

The paper presents a numerical implementation of the gravitational N-body problem with contact interactions between non-spherically shaped bodies. The work builds up on a previous implementation of the code and extends its capabilities. The number of bodies handled is significantly increased through the use of a CUDA/GPU-parallel octree structure. The implementation of the code is discussed and its performance are compared against direct N$^2$ integration. The code features both smooth (force-based) and non-smooth (impulse-based) methods, as well as a visco-elastic non-smooth method, to handle contact interaction between bodies. The numerical problem of simulating "rubble-pile" asteroid gravitational aggregation processes is addressed. We discuss the features of the problem and derive criteria to set up the numerical simulation from the dynamical constraints of the combined gravitational-collisional problem. Examples of asteroid aggregation scenarios that could benefit from such implementation are finally presented.