Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics in pkdgrav3 for Shock Physics Simulations. I. Hydrodynamics

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Main Authors: Meier, Thomas, Potter, Douglas, Reinhardt, Christian, Stadel, Joachim
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Meier, Thomas
Potter, Douglas
Reinhardt, Christian
Stadel, Joachim
author_facet Meier, Thomas
Potter, Douglas
Reinhardt, Christian
Stadel, Joachim
contents We present pkdgrav3, a high-performance, fully parallel tree-SPH code designed for large-scale hydrodynamic simulations including self-gravity. Building upon the long development history of pkdgrav, the code combines an efficient hierarchical tree algorithm for gravity and neighbor finding with a modern implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) optimized for massively parallel hybrid CPU/GPU architectures. Its hybrid shared/distributed memory model, combined with an asynchronous communication scheme, allows pkdgrav3 to scale efficiently to thousands of CPU cores and GPUs. We validate the numerical accuracy of pkdgrav3 using a suite of standard tests, demonstrating excellent agreement with analytic or reference solutions. The code was already used in several peer-reviewed publications to model planetary-scale impacts, where SPH's Lagrangian nature allows accurate tracking of material origin and thermodynamic evolution. These examples highlight pkdgrav3's robustness and efficiency in simulating highly dynamical, self-gravitating systems. pkdgrav3 thus provides a powerful, flexible, and scalable platform for astrophysical and planetary applications, capable of exploiting the full potential of modern heterogeneous high-performance computing systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_11425
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics in pkdgrav3 for Shock Physics Simulations. I. Hydrodynamics
Meier, Thomas
Potter, Douglas
Reinhardt, Christian
Stadel, Joachim
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
We present pkdgrav3, a high-performance, fully parallel tree-SPH code designed for large-scale hydrodynamic simulations including self-gravity. Building upon the long development history of pkdgrav, the code combines an efficient hierarchical tree algorithm for gravity and neighbor finding with a modern implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) optimized for massively parallel hybrid CPU/GPU architectures. Its hybrid shared/distributed memory model, combined with an asynchronous communication scheme, allows pkdgrav3 to scale efficiently to thousands of CPU cores and GPUs. We validate the numerical accuracy of pkdgrav3 using a suite of standard tests, demonstrating excellent agreement with analytic or reference solutions. The code was already used in several peer-reviewed publications to model planetary-scale impacts, where SPH's Lagrangian nature allows accurate tracking of material origin and thermodynamic evolution. These examples highlight pkdgrav3's robustness and efficiency in simulating highly dynamical, self-gravitating systems. pkdgrav3 thus provides a powerful, flexible, and scalable platform for astrophysical and planetary applications, capable of exploiting the full potential of modern heterogeneous high-performance computing systems.
title Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics in pkdgrav3 for Shock Physics Simulations. I. Hydrodynamics
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11425