GPU Data Structures and Code Generation for Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization

Virtual prototyping, the iterative process of using computer-aided (CAx) modeling, simulation, and visualization tools to optimize prototypes and products before manufacturing the first physical artifact, plays an increasingly important role in the modern product development process. Especially due to the availability of affordable additive manufacturing (AM) methods (3D printing), it is becoming increasingly possible to manufacture customized products or even for customers to print items for themselves. In such cases, the first physical prototype is frequently the final product. In this dissertation, methods to efficiently parallelize modeling, simulation, and visualization operations are examined with the goal of reducing iteration times in the virtual prototyping cycle, while simultaneously improving the availability of the necessary CAx tools. The presented methods focus on parallelization on programmable graphics processing units (GPUs). Modern GPUs are fully programmable massively parallel manycore processors that are characterized by their high energy efficiency and good price-performance ratio. Additionally, GPUs are already present in many workstations and home computers due to their use in computer-aided design (CAD) and computer games. However, specialized algorithms and data structures are required to make efficient use of the processing power of GPUs. Using the novel GPU-optimized data structures and algorithms as well as the new applications of compiler technology introduced in this dissertation, speedups between approximately one (10×) and more than two orders of magnitude (> 100×) are achieved compared to the state of the art in the three core areas of virtual prototyping. Additionally, memory use and required bandwidths are reduced by up to nearly 86%. As a result, not only can computations on existing models be executed more efficiently but larger models can be created and processed as well. In the area of modeling, efficient discrete mesh processing algorithms are examined with a focus on volumetric meshes. In the field of simulation, the assembly of the large sparse system matrices resulting from the finite element method (FEM) and the simulation of fluid dynamics are accelerated. As sparse matrices form the foundation of the presented approaches to mesh processing and simulation, GPU-optimized sparse matrix data structures and hardware- and domain-specific automatic tuning of these data structures are developed and examined as well. In the area of visualization, visualization latencies in remote visualization of cloud-based simulations are reduced by using an optimizing query compiler. By using hybrid visualization, various user interactions can be performed without network round trip latencies.