Lattice-Gas Automata Fluids on Parallel Supercomputers

TL;DR

This paper reviews lattice-gas automata theory and demonstrates their implementation on parallel supercomputers, showcasing fluid simulation capabilities and performance comparisons between specialized hardware and general-purpose supercomputers.

Contribution

It presents the implementation of lattice-gas automata on two parallel supercomputers and evaluates their performance in simulating complex fluid instabilities.

Findings

Both supercomputers achieved comparable site update rates.

Simulations successfully modeled Rayleigh-Bénard, Kelvin-Helmholtz, and vortex shedding instabilities.

CAM-8 demonstrated the potential of low-cost, special-purpose hardware.

Abstract

A condensed history and theoretical development of lattice-gas automata in the Boltzmann limit is presented. This is provided as background to set up the context for understanding the implementation of the lattice-gas method on two parallel supercomputers: the MIT cellular automata machine CAM-8 and the Connection Machine CM-5. The macroscopic limit of two-dimensional fluids is tested by simulating the Rayleigh-B\'enard convective instability, Kelvin-Helmholtz shear instability, and the Von Karman vortex shedding instability. Performance of the two machines in terms of both site update rate and maximum problem size are comparable. The CAM-8, being a low-cost desktop machine, demonstrates the potential of special-purpose digital hardware.