Asynchronous Parallel Potts Model for Simulation of Grain Growth

This work describes an implementation of the Potts model for simulation of grain growth in 2D on a distributed-memory parallel architecture. The simulation scheme utilizes continuous-time, asynchronous parallel version of the n-fold way algorithm. Each Processing Element (PE) carries a piece of the global simulation domain while the virtual topology of the PEs is in the form of a square grid in 2D and Torus in 3D. Different PEs have different local simulated times. Inter-processor communication is facilitated by the Message Passing Interface (MPI) routines. Sample results for grain growth simulation in 2D are presented for 720 x 720 global domain size distributed over 16 PEs. The grain growth kinetics obtained in the simulation of pure, isotropic systems demonstrates a close agreement with the analytical models. Grain size distribution obtained in the parallel simulation is well described by the expected lognormal distribution, thus validating the simulation procedure.