DualSPHysics — The Complete Guide: GPU SPH Simulation of Wave Impact and Sloshing
DualSPHysics is a flow solver based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics: the fluid is represented as a set of particles rather than a mesh. The method is especially strong for violent free-surface flows — a breaking wave, water overtopping an embankment, liquid sloshing in a tank — where classic mesh-based methods struggle.
DualSPHysics
DualSPHysics team
SPH flow simulation on the GPU — wave impact, sloshing and free-surface flows around hydraulic and coastal structures.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- GPU runs — support for NVIDIA cards with CUDA, making millions of particles feasible in reasonable time.
- CPU runs — also on multi-core processors, without a graphics card.
- Coastal and hydraulic structures — wave impact on breakwaters and jetties and overtopping of embankments.
- Sloshing and control structures — liquid in tanks and flow through regulating structures.
- Tools and examples — pre- and post-processing tools and ready cases to learn from.
What to know
The licence is LGPL-2.1 and allows any use, including commercial work. Downloading from the official site requires a short form, and the source code is also on GitHub. It takes time to learn, and a strong graphics card makes a big difference to run times.
Related tools
For nearshore waves with a mesh-based model — SWASH. For general finite-volume CFD — OpenFOAM. For viewing results — ParaView.
SWASH
Delft University of Technology
Non-hydrostatic coastal flow model — waves in harbours, overtopping of structures and estuary currents.
Get it from the vendor
OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM Foundation
Comprehensive CFD solvers — flow, turbulence, heat transfer and multiphase. Text-file driven, no GUI.
Get it from the vendorXBeach
Deltares
Storm impact on the coast — overwash, dune erosion and barrier breaching in a single extreme event.
Get it from the vendor
ParaView
Kitware / Sandia / Los Alamos
Large-scale simulation post-processing — slices, streamlines and animation.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
When the question is how hard a wave hits a structure, or where the water goes after it breaks, DualSPHysics is a serious free tool — provided you have a good graphics card and the patience to learn it.