A Multi-GPUs based SWE algorithm and its application in the simulation of flood routing

Abstract

Hydrodynamic simulation based on shallow water wave equations (SWE) is one of the most useful methods for flood routing analysis. However, its widespread application in large-scale basin flood disaster prevention is hindered by significant computational efficiency challenges. Addressing this issue, a hydrodynamic algorithm based on multi-GPUs is provided, and the program named as CoSim-SWE is developed in this study. In the algorithm, the computational domain is partitioned into multiple subdomains, and assigned to each single GPU device to improve the computing power and efficiency. The accuracy of the multi-GPUs algorithm is validated based on two benchmarks. To demonstrate its practical utility, the developed CoSim-SWE is used to reconstruct the process of “11·03″ flood routing induced by the dam breach of Baige barrier dam on the Jinsha River, Sichuan province, China. The numerical results are compared with the field investigations. Furthermore, computational efficiency of the CoSim-SWE is also analyzed, which shows the developed multi-GPUs algorithm significantly can be better used for simulation of the large-scale flood routing with high-efficiency.