Date: Friday, 17th April 2026
Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Location: CODA C0908 Home Park
Mengdi Wang
Ph.D. Student
School of Interactive Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee members
Dr. Bo Zhu (advisor): School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Gregory Turk: School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Sehoon Ha: School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Eftychios Sifakis: School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Matthew Cong: Senior Research Scientist, NVIDIA Corporation
Abstract
In this thesis, we develop representations, solvers, and transport algorithms for high-performance multiscale fluid simulation, addressing the challenge that important fluid phenomena such as thin films, sub-grid interfaces, and fine vortical structures span spatial scales far smaller than the simulation domain. First, we introduce specialized representations for regimes where standard volumetric methods are insufficient, including a codimensional SPH method for thin fluid films and a sub-grid interface tracking approach on triangle meshes, enabling accurate and efficient simulation with strong geometric fidelity and mass conservation. Next, we present a fully GPU-resident adaptive simulation framework for large-scale three-dimensional flows, combining an efficient octree data structure, a matrix-free algebraic multigrid solver, and a hybrid flow-map transport scheme to capture rich vortical structures on adaptive grids. Finally, we demonstrate that the proposed system achieves effective resolutions of hundreds of millions of cells on a single GPU and produces high-fidelity simulations with significantly enhanced vortical detail. These results show that combining specialized representations with adaptive GPU algorithms provides an effective approach to simulating multiscale fluid phenomena.
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