A parallel-GPU code for asteroid aggregation problems with angular particles

Abstract

The paper presents a numerical implementation of the gravitational N-body problem with contact interactions between non-spherically shaped bodies. The work builds up on a previous implementation of the code and extends its capabilities. The number of bodies handled is significantly increased through the use of a CUDA/GPU-parallel octree structure. The implementation of the code is discussed and its performance are compared against direct N${}^2$ integration. The code features both smooth (force-based) and non-smooth (impulse-based) methods, as well as a visco-elastic non-smooth method, to handle contact interaction between bodies. The numerical problem of simulating "rubble-pile" asteroid gravitational aggregation processes is addressed. We discuss the features of the problem and derive criteria to set up the numerical simulation from the dynamical constraints of the combined gravitational-collisional problem. Examples of asteroid aggregation scenarios that could benefit from such implementation are finally presented.

15 pages and 8 figures. Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Predictions for the Dynamical States of the Didymos System before and after the Planned DART Impact
• The role of fragment shapes in the simulations of asteroids as gravitational aggregates
• Dynamical Evolution of the Didymos-Dimorphos Binary Asteroid as Rubble Piles following the DART Impact
• Rapid formation of binary asteroid systems post rotational failure: a recipe for making atypically shaped satellites
• Lifted particles from the fast spinning primary of the Near-Earth Asteroid (65803) Didymos
• Sub-surface granular dynamics in the context of oblique, low-velocity impacts into angular granular media