JAX-Fluids 2.0: Towards HPC for Differentiable CFD of Compressible Two-phase Flows

TL;DR

JAX-Fluids 2.0 advances differentiable CFD by integrating HPC scalability, new two-phase flow models, and robust numerical schemes, enabling efficient large-scale simulations of complex compressible flows.

Contribution

This work introduces HPC-capable parallelization and new two-phase flow models into JAX-Fluids, enhancing its scalability, robustness, and modeling capabilities for differentiable CFD.

Findings

Scales efficiently on GPU and TPU HPC systems

Successfully simulates complex two-phase flows and shock interactions

Demonstrates stable gradient computation across extended trajectories

Abstract

In our effort to facilitate machine learning-assisted computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we introduce the second iteration of JAX-Fluids. JAX-Fluids is a Python-based fully-differentiable CFD solver designed for compressible single- and two-phase flows. In this work, the first version is extended to incorporate high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities. We introduce a parallelization strategy utilizing JAX primitive operations that scales efficiently on GPU (up to 512 NVIDIA A100 graphics cards) and TPU (up to 1024 TPU v3 cores) HPC systems. We further demonstrate the stable parallel computation of automatic differentiation gradients across extended integration trajectories. The new code version offers enhanced two-phase flow modeling capabilities. In particular, a five-equation diffuse-interface model is incorporated which complements the level-set sharp-interface model. Additional algorithmic improvements include positivity-preserving limiters for increased robustness, support for stretched Cartesian meshes, refactored I/O handling, comprehensive post-processing routines, and an updated list of state-of-the-art high-order numerical discretization schemes. We verify newly added numerical models by showcasing simulation results for single- and two-phase flows, including turbulent boundary layer and channel flows, air-helium shock bubble interactions, and air-water shock drop interactions.