Large-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations of complex fluids: advances through the advent of computational grids

TL;DR

This paper discusses large-scale 3D lattice Boltzmann simulations of complex fluids enabled by computational grids, highlighting software development, grid deployment, and techniques like steering and visualization to improve scientific efficiency.

Contribution

It demonstrates the use of computational grids and advanced techniques to enhance large-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations of complex fluids, a relatively new approach in the field.

Findings

Successful large-scale simulations of complex fluid flows

Implementation of computational steering and visualization techniques

Insights into fluid behavior in porous media and self-organization

Abstract

During the last two years the RealityGrid project has allowed us to be one of the few scientific groups involved in the development of computational grids. Since smoothly working production grids are not yet available, we have been able to substantially influence the direction of software development and grid deployment within the project. In this paper we review our results from large scale three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulations performed over the last two years. We describe how the proactive use of computational steering and advanced job migration and visualization techniques enabled us to do our scientific work more efficiently. The projects reported on in this paper are studies of complex fluid flows under shear or in porous media, as well as large-scale parameter searches, and studies of the self-organisation of liquid cubic mesophases. Movies are available at http://www.ica1.uni-stuttgart.de/~jens/pub/05/05-PhilTransReview.html