A GPU-accelerated pseudo-3D vortex method for aerodynamic analysis

Abstract The paper introduces a novel extension of the two-dimensional Vortex Particle Method for the numerical aerodynamic analysis of line-like structures. Here, several two-dimensional simulations are performed for sections along the structure. The in-plane forces and displacements are coupled to a three-dimensional dynamic representation of the structure to perform fully coupled fluid–structure interaction simulations. The innovative aspect of this pseudo-three-dimensional representation is the coupling of the dynamic response of the arbitrarily complex section geometries of the different slices. It allows for changes in the cross sectional geometry and for large numbers of structural modes of vibration to be taken into account. Since the computational effort rises substantially with the simultaneous computation of many slices, the core numerical code is modified to be run on multi-core CPU and GPU architectures using the OpenCL framework. Substantial speedups can be shown even for only a partial OpenCL implementation. The two enhancements of the simulation framework are applied in the analysis of vortex-induced vibrations observed on the Niteroi Bridge. The pseudo-three-dimensional simulations allow for a better representation of the bridge geometry and dynamic properties by modelling the variable depth of the bridge girder as well as the influence of typical vehicle traffic on the wind–structure interaction effects.

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