GPU-accelerated implicit solver for diffusion problems on unstructured grids

Implicit solvers on unstructured grids are widely used for diffusion-type problems because of their robustness and geometric flexibility. However, their efficiency in large-scale simulations is often limited by coefficient assembly, sparse linear-system solution, and irregular memory access caused by indirect grid connectivity. In this work, a GPUaccelerated implicit solver for diffusion problems is developed within the CMP platform. Two acceleration schemes are implemented and compared. In the hybrid CPU-GPU scheme, the coefficient matrix is assembled on the CPU, while only the sparse linear solver is executed on the GPU. In the full-process GPU scheme, discretization, matrix assembly, and linear solution are all performed on the GPU. AMGX is used for sparse linear solving, and the face-based discretization and assembly kernels on unstructured grids are redesigned in CUDA. To examine memory-access behavior, three data layouts, namely SoA, LAOS1, and LAOS2, are evaluated for the main face-based kernels. Four benchmark cases, including two-dimensional and three-dimensional configurations with both regular and complex geometries, are used to assess accuracy, convergence, scalability, memory behavior, and data-layout effects. The GPU solutions agree well with the CPU solutions and reference results, and the residual histories remain consistent among the computing schemes. Compared with the hybrid CPU-GPU scheme, the full-process GPU scheme achieves higher acceleration by reducing CPU-side assembly and repeated host-device transfer. For cases with more than one million cells, the measured speedup of the hybrid scheme reaches approximately 70% of the theoretical upper bound estimated by Amdahl's law. The data-layout results show that layout optimization has a limited effect in two-dimensional cases with relatively good locality, but becomes more effective for three-dimensional unstructured grids. By packing frequently co-accessed and indirectly accessed variables into localized AoS-like structures, LAOS can improve spatial locality on irregular three-dimensional grids and reduces scattered memory-access overhead. Among the tested layouts, LAOS1 provides the most stable overall improvement, whereas the benefit of LAOS2 depends more strongly on the access pattern of each kernel.

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Publication Details

Journal
International Journal of Computational Methods
Published
2026-08-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219876226500507
Primary Topic
Advanced Numerical Methods in Computational Mathematics
Type
article
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article

GPU-accelerated implicit solver for diffusion problems on unstructured grids

Aoxue Chen, Zhicheng Tan, KaiXin Guo, Pingjian Ming
International Journal of Computational Methods
Advanced Numerical Methods in Computational Mathematics
article

GPU-accelerated implicit solver for diffusion problems on unstructured grids

Aoxue Chen, Zhicheng Tan, KaiXin Guo, Pingjian Ming
article en

Abstract

Implicit solvers on unstructured grids are widely used for diffusion-type problems because of their robustness and geometric flexibility. However, their efficiency in large-scale simulations is often limited by coefficient assembly, sparse linear-system solution, and irregular memory access caused by indirect grid connectivity. In this work, a GPUaccelerated implicit solver for diffusion problems is developed within the CMP platform. Two acceleration schemes are implemented and compared. In the hybrid CPU-GPU scheme, the coefficient matrix is assembled on the CPU, while only the sparse linear solver is executed on the GPU. In the full-process GPU scheme, discretization, matrix assembly, and linear solution are all performed on the GPU. AMGX is used for sparse linear solving, and the face-based discretization and assembly kernels on unstructured grids are redesigned in CUDA. To examine memory-access behavior, three data layouts, namely SoA, LAOS1, and LAOS2, are evaluated for the main face-based kernels. Four benchmark cases, including two-dimensional and three-dimensional configurations with both regular and complex geometries, are used to assess accuracy, convergence, scalability, memory behavior, and data-layout effects. The GPU solutions agree well with the CPU solutions and reference results, and the residual histories remain consistent among the computing schemes. Compared with the hybrid CPU-GPU scheme, the full-process GPU scheme achieves higher acceleration by reducing CPU-side assembly and repeated host-device transfer. For cases with more than one million cells, the measured speedup of the hybrid scheme reaches approximately 70% of the theoretical upper bound estimated by Amdahl's law. The data-layout results show that layout optimization has a limited effect in two-dimensional cases with relatively good locality, but becomes more effective for three-dimensional unstructured grids. By packing frequently co-accessed and indirectly accessed variables into localized AoS-like structures, LAOS can improve spatial locality on irregular three-dimensional grids and reduces scattered memory-access overhead. Among the tested layouts, LAOS1 provides the most stable overall improvement, whereas the benefit of LAOS2 depends more strongly on the access pattern of each kernel.

International Journal of Computational Methods
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Advanced Numerical Methods in Computational Mathematics
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