PFI-TT: A Parallel Computing Engine for Simulation of Complex Multi-Scale Systems

这个PFI项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力源于开发一个廉价的，高度并行的计算平台，以解决科学和工程模拟，同时利用商用有限元软件的前端和后处理工具。突破性的科学和商业机会源于近年来开发的并行计算硬件的使用，以支持计算机游戏行业，这还没有被利用来解决目前使用有限元方法解决的模拟问题。这可能会导致一个突破，在仿真行业拥抱的方法来解决边值问题，不需要大型矩阵求逆。所提出的方法将有利于几个科学和工程应用，其中大尺寸或多尺度几何形状使网格计算望而却步，并解决了工程设计和仿真中的关键瓶颈，特别是在瞬态分析和设计优化。潜在的商业机会是巨大的：成功地采用所提出的方法将导致工程和科学模拟软件性能的重大突破，同时利用新的可用并行计算资源（游戏图形引擎）。拟议的项目支持开发一个廉价的，高度并行的仿真平台，可以与现有有限元软件的前处理和后处理工具集成。拟议的模块将使用游戏图形处理器实现，与传统的有限元软件相比，在模拟时间上实现了突破性的加速。最终成果将提交给潜在的合作伙伴或投资者，以进行商业化和未来发展。根据NSF I-Corps研究对工程师和科学家进行的采访显示，他们对解决现有有限元工具瓶颈的模拟工具有很大的需求和兴趣，特别是在过长的模拟时间方面。拟议项目具有变革性，原因如下：（i）提出了一种使用高度并行计算的复杂系统仿真的新方法，（ii）与现有的大规模问题和瞬态分析软件相比，所提出的方法可以导致仿真时间的突破性减少，以及（iii）所提出的方法将导致可以与来自现有有限元方法（FEM）软件的预处理和后处理工具集成的仿真引擎，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this PFI project stems from the development of an inexpensive, highly parallel computing platform to solve scientific and engineering simulations while taking advantage of the front end and post-processing tools of commercially available finite-element software. The breakthrough scientific and commercial opportunity stems from the use of parallel computing hardware developed in recent years in support of the computer gaming industry, that has not been leveraged yet for solution of simulation problems currently addressed using finite element methods. This can lead to a breakthrough in the simulation industry by embracing an approach to the solution of boundary value problems that does not require inversion of large matrices. The proposed approach will benefit several scientific and engineering applications where large dimensions or multi-scale geometries makes meshing computationally prohibitive, and addresses critical bottlenecks in engineering design and simulation, in particular in transient analysis and design optimization. The potential business opportunity is significant: the successful adoption of the proposed approach would lead to a major breakthrough in the performance of software for engineering and scientific simulation, while exploiting newly available parallel computing resources (gaming graphics engines).The proposed project supports the development of an inexpensive, highly parallel simulation platform that can be integrated with pre and post processing tools of existing finite-element software. The proposed module will be implemented using gaming graphics processors, enabling a breakthrough speed-up in simulation time compared to conventional finite element software. The final deliverables will be presented to potential partners or investors for commercialization and future development. Interviews with engineers and scientists under an NSF I-Corps study revealed a significant need and interest for simulation tools that address the bottlenecks of existing finite-element tools, in particular in terms of prohibitively long simulation times. The proposed project is transformative for the following reasons: (i) A novel approach for the simulation of complex systems using highly-parallel computing is proposed, (ii) the proposed approach can lead to a breakthrough reduction in simulation time compared to available software in large scale problems and transient analyses, and (iii) the proposed approach will lead to a simulation engine that can be integrated with pre and post processing tools from existing finite element method (FEM) software, enabling its use within well developed products that already have a solid customer base.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.