Advanced Simulation Library
Free and open-source multiphysics platform
Advanced Simulation Library (ASL) is a free and open-source hardware-accelerated multiphysics simulation platform. It enables users to write customized numerical solvers in C++ and deploy them on a variety of massively parallel architectures, ranging from inexpensive FPGAs, DSPs and GPUs up to heterogeneous clusters and supercomputers. Its internal computational engine is written in OpenCL and utilizes matrix-free solution techniques. ASL implements variety of modern numerical methods, i.a. level-set method, lattice Boltzmann, immersed boundary. The mesh-free, immersed boundary approach allows users to move from CAD directly to simulation, reducing pre-processing efforts and number of potential errors. ASL can be used to model various coupled physical and chemical phenomena, especially in the field of computational fluid dynamics. It is distributed under the free GNU Affero General Public License with an optional commercial license (which is based on the permissive MIT License).
01History
Advanced Simulation Library is being developed by Avtech Scientific, an Israeli company. Its source code was released to the community on 14 May 2015, whose members packaged it for scientific sections of all major Linux distributions shortly thereafter. Subsequently, Khronos Group acknowledged the significance of ASL and listed it on its website among OpenCL-based resources.
02Application areas
03Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
- C++ API (no OpenCL knowledge required)
- Mesh-free, immersed boundary approach allows users to move from CAD directly to computations reducing pre-processing effort
- Dynamic compilation enables an additional layer of optimization at run-time (i.e. for a specific parameters set the application was provided with)
- Automatic hardware acceleration and parallelization of applications
- Deployment of same program on a variety of parallel architectures - GPU, APU, FPGA, DSP, multicore CPUs
- Ability to deal with complex boundaries
- Ability to incorporate microscopic interactions
- Availability of the source code
Disadvantages
- Absence of detailed documentation (besides the Developer Guide generated from the source code comments)
- Not all OpenCL drivers are mature enough for the library
04Features
ASL provides a range of features to solve number of problems - from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid mechanics and elasticity.
- Interfacing: VTK/ParaView, MATLAB (export).
- import file formats: .stl .vtp .vtk .vti .mnc .dcm
- export file formats: .vti .mat
- Geometry:
- flexible and complex geometry using simple rectangular grid
- mesh-free, immersed boundary approach
- generation and manipulation of geometric primitives
- Implemented phenomena:
- Transport processes
- multicomponent transport processes
- compressible and incompressible fluid flow
- Chemical reactions
- electrode reactions
- Elasticity
- homogeneous isotropic elasticity
- homogeneous isotropic poroelasticity
- Interface tracking
- evolution of an interface
- evolution of an interface with crystallographic kinetics
- Transport processes
05Uses
- ACTIVE - Active Constraints Technologies for Ill-defined or Volatile Environments (European FP7 Project)
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Advanced Simulation Library”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Advanced Simulation Library - Multicomponent flow.png by Avtech Scientific, GFDL
- Advanced Simulation Library - Computer-assisted cryosurgery.png by Avtech Scientific, GFDL
- Advanced Simulation Library - microfluidic device for separating mixtures of proteins.png by Avtech Scientific, GFDL
- Advanced Simulation Library - Coating procedure employing Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) method.png by Avtech Scientific, GFDL
- Advanced Simulation Library - Image-guided neurosurgery, brain deformation simulation.png by Avtech Scientific, GFDL
- Advanced Simulation Library - Aerodynamics of a locomotive in a tunnel.png by Avtech Scientific, GFDL
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