Section: New Results

Simulations for Vlasov-Maxwell model

Participants : Anaïs Crestetto, Philippe Helluy.

In [37] (see also [11] ), we present an implementation of a Vlasov-Maxwell solver for multicore processors. The Vlasov equation describes the evolution of charged particles in an electromagnetic field, solution of the Maxwell equations. We propose to solve the Vlasov equation by a Particle-In-Cell method (PIC), while the Maxwell system is computed by a Discontinuous Galerkin method. These methods are detailed, as well as the emission law for the particles and the implementation of the boundary conditions. We use the OpenCL framework, which allows our code to run on multicore processors or recent Graphic Processing Units (GPU). The key points of the implementation on this architecture are presented. We then study several numerical applications to two-dimensional test cases in cartesian geometry. The acceleration between the computation on a CPU and on a graphic card is very high, especially for the Maxwell part.

We have started a new software project called CLAC (for “Conservation Laws Approximation on many Cores”). This a 3D Discontinuous Galerkin solver, which runs on cluster of GPU's, thanks to the OpenCL environment and the MPI library. CLAC is open source and developed in collaboration with the AxesSim company, a SME near Strasbourg. For the moment, it is applied to the Maxwell equations. But we plan to apply it to the MHD equations or mixed kinetic/fluid plasma models.