Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationPartial differential equations (PDEs) are widely used in science and engineering to model phenomena such as sound, heat, and electrostatics. In many practical science and engineering applications, the solutions of PDEs require the tessellation of computational domains into unstructured meshes and entail computationally expensive and time-consuming processes. Therefore, efficient and fast PDE solving techniques on unstructured meshes are important in these applications. Relative to CPUs, the faster growth curves in the speed and greater power efficiency of the SIMD streaming processors, such as GPUs, have gained them an increasingly important role in the high-performance computing area. Combining suitable parallel algorithms and these streaming processors, we can develop very efficient numerical solvers of PDEs. The contributions of this dissertation are twofold: proposal of two general strategies to design efficient PDE solvers on GPUs and the specific applications of these strategies to solve different types of PDEs. Specifically, this dissertation consists of four parts. First, we describe the general strategies, the domain decomposition strategy and the hybrid gathering strategy. Next, we introduce a parallel algorithm for solving the eikonal equation on fully unstructured meshes efficiently. Third, we present the algorithms and data structures necessary to move the entire FEM pipeline to the GPU. Fourth, we propose a parallel algorithm for solving the levelset equation on fully unstructured 2D or 3D meshes or manifolds. This algorithm combines a narrowband scheme with domain decomposition for efficient levelset equation solving

Conception et réalisation d'un solveur pour les problèmes de dynamique des fluides pour les architectures many-core

Numerical simulation is nowadays an essential part of engineering analysis, be it to design anew plane, or to detect underground oil reservoirs. Numerical simulations have indeed become an important complement to theoretical and experimental investigation, allowing one to reduce the cost of engineering design processes. In order to achieve a high level of precision, one need to increase the resolution of his computational domain. So to keep getting results in reasonable time, one shall nd a way to speed-up computations. To do this, we use high performance computing, HPC, to exploit the complex architecture of modern supercomputers. Under these two constraints, and some other like the genericity of finite elements, or the mesh dimension, we developed a new platform AeroSol. In this thesis, we present the mathematical background, and the two types of schemes that are implemented in the platform, the continuous finite elements method, and the discontinuous one. Then, we present the design choices made in the platform,then, we study a sub-problem, the assembly operation, which can be found in linear algebra multi-frontal methods.La simulation numérique fait partie intégrante du processus d'analyse. Que l'on veuille concevoir le profil d'un véhicule, ou chercher à prévoir le résultat d'un forage pétrolier, la simulation numérique est devenue un outil complémentaire à la théorie et aux expérimentations. Cet outildoit produire des résultats précis en un minimum de temps. Pour cela, nous avons à disposition des méthodes numériques précises, et des machines de calcul aux performances importantes. Cet outil doit être générique sur les maillages, l'ordre de la solution, les méthodes numériques, et doitmaintenir ses performances sur les machines de calculs modernes avec une hiérarchie complexes d'unité de calculs. Nous présentons dans cette thèse le background mathématiques de deux classes de schémas numériques, les méthodes aux éléments finis continus et discontinus. Puis nous présentons les enjeux de la conception d'une plateforme en prenant en compte l'ensemble de ces contraintes. Ensuite nous nous intéressons au sous-problème de l'assemblage au dessus d'un support d'exécution. L'opération d'assemblage se retrouve en algèbre linéaire dans les méthodes multi-frontales ou dans les applications de simulations assemblant un système linéaire. Puis, nous concluons en dressant un bilan sur la plateforme AeroSol et donnons des pistes d'évolution possibles

Numerical investigation of fracture of polycrystalline ice under dynamic loading

Cohesive zone model is a promising technique for simulating fracture processes in brittle ice. In this work it is applied to investigate the fracture behavior of polycrystalline cylindrical samples under uniaxial loading conditions, four-point beam bending, and L-shaped beam bending. In each case, the simulation results are compared with the corresponding experimental data that was collected by other researchers. The model is based on the implicit finite element method combined with Park-Paulino-Roesler formulation for cohesive potential and includes an adaptive time stepping scheme, which takes into account the rate of damage and failure of cohesive zones. The benefit of the implicit scheme is that it allows larger time steps than explicit integration. Material properties and model parameters are calibrated using available experimental data for freshwater ice and sea ice samples. For polycrystalline ice, granular geometry is generated and cohesive zones are inserted between grains. Simulations are performed for samples with different grain sizes, and the resulting stress–strain and damage accumulation curves are recorded. Investigation of the dependency between the grain size and fracture strength shows a strengthening effect that is consistent with experimental results. The proposed framework is also applied to simulate the dynamic fracture processes in Lshaped beams of sea ice, in which case the cohesive zones are inserted between the elements of the mesh. Evolution of the stress distribution on the surface of the beam is modeled for the duration of the loading process, showing how it changes with progressive accumulation of damage in the material, as well as the development of cracks. An analytical formula is derived for estimating the breaking force based on the dimensions of the beam and the ice strength. Experimental data obtained from the 2014-2016 tests are re-evaluated with the aid of this new analysis. The computation is implemented efficiently with GPU acceleration, allowing to handle geometries with higher resolution than would be possible otherwise. Several technical contributions are described in detail including GPU-accelerated FEM implementation, an efficient way of creation of sparse matrix structure, and comparison of different unloading/reloading relations when using an implicit integration scheme. A mechanism for collision response allows modeling the interaction of fragmented material. To evaluate the collision forces, an algorithm for computing first and second point-triangle distance derivatives was developed. The source code is made available as open-source

Software for Exascale Computing - SPPEXA 2016-2019

This open access book summarizes the research done and results obtained in the second funding phase of the Priority Program 1648 "Software for Exascale Computing" (SPPEXA) of the German Research Foundation (DFG) presented at the SPPEXA Symposium in Dresden during October 21-23, 2019. In that respect, it both represents a continuation of Vol. 113 in Springer’s series Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering, the corresponding report of SPPEXA’s first funding phase, and provides an overview of SPPEXA’s contributions towards exascale computing in today's sumpercomputer technology. The individual chapters address one or more of the research directions (1) computational algorithms, (2) system software, (3) application software, (4) data management and exploration, (5) programming, and (6) software tools. The book has an interdisciplinary appeal: scholars from computational sub-fields in computer science, mathematics, physics, or engineering will find it of particular interest

Fusing Multimedia Data Into Dynamic Virtual Environments

In spite of the dramatic growth of virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) technology, content creation for immersive and dynamic virtual environments remains a significant challenge. In this dissertation, we present our research in fusing multimedia data, including text, photos, panoramas, and multi-view videos, to create rich and compelling virtual environments. First, we present Social Street View, which renders geo-tagged social media in its natural geo-spatial context provided by 360° panoramas. Our system takes into account visual saliency and uses maximal Poisson-disc placement with spatiotemporal filters to render social multimedia in an immersive setting. We also present a novel GPU-driven pipeline for saliency computation in 360° panoramas using spherical harmonics (SH). Our spherical residual model can be applied to virtual cinematography in 360° videos. We further present Geollery, a mixed-reality platform to render an interactive mirrored world in real time with three-dimensional (3D) buildings, user-generated content, and geo-tagged social media. Our user study has identified several use cases for these systems, including immersive social storytelling, experiencing the culture, and crowd-sourced tourism. We next present Video Fields, a web-based interactive system to create, calibrate, and render dynamic videos overlaid on 3D scenes. Our system renders dynamic entities from multiple videos, using early and deferred texture sampling. Video Fields can be used for immersive surveillance in virtual environments. Furthermore, we present VRSurus and ARCrypt projects to explore the applications of gestures recognition, haptic feedback, and visual cryptography for virtual and augmented reality. Finally, we present our work on Montage4D, a real-time system for seamlessly fusing multi-view video textures with dynamic meshes. We use geodesics on meshes with view-dependent rendering to mitigate spatial occlusion seams while maintaining temporal consistency. Our experiments show significant enhancement in rendering quality, especially for salient regions such as faces. We believe that Social Street View, Geollery, Video Fields, and Montage4D will greatly facilitate several applications such as virtual tourism, immersive telepresence, and remote education

Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen