Enabling large-scale and high-precision fluid simulations on near-term quantum computers

Quantum computational fluid dynamics (QCFD) offers a promising alternative to classical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) by leveraging quantum algorithms for higher efficiency. This paper introduces a comprehensive QCFD method, including an iterative method Iterative-QLS that suppresses error in quantum linear solver, and a subspace method to scale the solution to a larger size. We implement our method on a superconducting quantum computer, demonstrating successful simulations of steady Poiseuille flow and unsteady acoustic wave propagation. The Poiseuille flow simulation achieved a relative error of less than 0.2%, and the unsteady acoustic wave simulation solved a 5043-dimensional matrix. We emphasize the utilization of the quantum–classical hybrid approach in applications of near-term quantum computers. By adapting to quantum hardware constraints and offering scalable solutions for large-scale CFD problems, our method paves the way for practical applications of near-term quantum computers in computational science. © 2024