Modelling of geophysical flows through GPUFLOW

Modelling and simulation of geophysical flows are crucial to the forecasting of the propagation extent and the assessment of the related hazards. Here we introduce a new physics-based model called GPUFLOW, which was born from our twenty years of experience in Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling of geophysical flows. GPUFLOW features an improved physical model for the thermal and rheological evolution of lava flows, support for debris flows without thermal dependency and a parallel implementation on graphic processing units (GPUs). We estimate the influence that the GPUFLOW input parameters have on flow emplacement through different synthetic test cases and demonstrate its reliability through the 2014 pyroclastic flow and the 2018 eruption occurred at Etna volcano. This work was supported by the INGV project Pianeta Dinamico funded by MIUR (“Fondo finalizzato al rilancio degli investimenti delle amministrazioni centrali dello Stato e allo sviluppo del Paese,” legge 145/2018), Tema 8 – PANACEA 2021.