Numerical Simulation of Particulate Matter Transport in the Atmospheric Urban Boundary Layer Using the Lagrangian Approach: Physical Problems and Parallel Implementation

Abstract

This paper presents results of development of a numerical model of Lagrangian particle transport, as well as results of application of parallel computation methods to improve the efficiency of the software implementation of this model. The model is a software package that allows the transport and deposition of aerosol particles to be calculated taking into account properties of particles and the input data that describe atmospheric conditions and underlying surface geometry. The dynamic core, physical parameterizations, numerical implementation, and algorithm of the model are described. Results of successful verification of the model on analytical solutions are presented. Initially, the model was used for less computationally intensive problems. In this paper, given the need to use the model in more computationally intensive problems, we optimize the sequential software implementation of the model, as well as develop its software implementations that use parallel computing technologies (OpenMP, MPI, and CUDA). The results of testing different implementations of the model show that the optimization of the most computationally complex blocks in its sequential version can reduce the execution time by 27%. At the same time, the use of parallel computing technologies allows us to achieve acceleration by several orders of magnitude. The use of OpenMP in the dynamic block of the model provides almost 4-fold acceleration of this block; the use of MPI, almost 8-fold acceleration; and the use of CUDA, almost 16-fold acceleration (all other conditions being equal). We also give some recommendations on the choice of a parallel computing technology depending on the properties of a computing system.