FDTD analysis of 3D lightning problems with material uncertainties on GPU architecture

On the Efficiency of OpenACC-aided GPU-Based FDTD Approach: Application to Lightning Electromagnetic Fields

“…induced disturbances on nearby structures, such as overhead transmission lines and buried cables (e.g., [25][26][27][28][29][30][31]), computations have been carried out by making use of CPU-based systems. However, there exist several attempts in which different hardware platforms have been used for the same study (e.g., [32][33][34][35][36]). One example is the use of GPU-based compute unified device architecture (CUDA) programming for the finite difference time domain (FDTD) evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields.…”

“…Recently, graphical processing using OpenACC has caught the attention of many researchers due to its relative simplicity and high performance (e.g., [39,40]). One of the particular examples of using OpenACC on graphics processors is to calculate the vector potential using the finite difference generated by time-domain However, there exist several attempts in which different hardware platforms have been used for the same study (e.g., [32][33][34][35][36]). One example is the use of GPU-based compute unified device architecture (CUDA) programming for the finite difference time domain (FDTD) evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields.…”

“…Due to its high-speed calculation, this approach facilitates three-dimensional modeling of a problem, taking into account parameter uncertainties such as irregular lightning channel and surface roughness [34]. It is noted that this approach is supposedly 100 times faster than the serial processing approach in CPU [33]. Although the GPU-based CUDA programming approach is highly efficient and provides the programmer with the flexibility to utilize various memories such as cache memory, it requires the involvement of the programmer for the determination of many programming details [37].…”

Influence of Geometric Simplifications on Lightning Strike Simulations

“…The analysis of uncertainties associated with this process is currently the focus of much research attention. Statistical methods dealing with uncertainties in the parameters of cables, materials, circuits, etc., such as those based on Monte Carlo analysis or on stochastic Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) modelling [10,11], are still either computationally prohibitive or too limited, to be applied to the complexity of a modern aircraft. For this reason, the engineer's experience in managing the information included in the digital mock-up plays a fundamental role in the success of this process.…”