Study of the Lattice Boltzmann Method applied to micro fluid dynamics: development and use of high performance simulators in shared memory architectures

Abstract

The Lattice Boltzmann (MLB) method has experienced great advances and has been well accepted as a useful method for simulating different types of fluid flows. For computational microfluidics, the LB method can have some advantages, including the physical representation of microscopic interactions, simpler algorithms for multiphase flows, and the ease of dealing with complex geometries. In addition, the LB method is an explicit computational fluid dynamics method suitable for the use of parallelism that has been gaining prominence in the scientific community. Because of these characteristics, MLB was chosen for the simulation of hydrodynamic and heat transfer processes in gas-liquid micro systems that use microchannels. In this way, it is intended to numerically simulate the mechanisms that govern the hydrodynamic and heat transfer processes in microchannels of high-performance heat exchangers used as collectors or solar absorbers. For this, computational routines will be analyzed and developed using parallel processing techniques in shared memory architectures in order to allow a reasonable processing time for the analyzed cases. The present research project aims to complement the establishment of the line of research related to the studies of fundamental phenomena that take place in microchannels of solar absorbers, contributing to the development of the thematic project in question (process 2016/09509-1) and research at NETeF of EESC-USP. (AU)