Some Aspects of Parallel Implementation of the Finite Element Method on Message Passing Architectures

Abstract

Discussed are some aspects of implementing the finite element method on parallel computers with local memory and message passing. In particular, the costs of using high order and low order elements, and of direct and iterative solvers are compared for solving the linear systems that occur. Our model of parallel computation is a two-dimensional grid of processors chosen to be similar in shape to the underlying grid. Our main conclusions are that sparse direct solvers generalize naturally to methods based on high order elements, and that direct solvers are adequate for two-dimensional problems, especially for multiple load vectors. High order methods are shown to achieve higher accuracy at less cost on some typical model problems.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA198731

Entities

People

  • H. C. Elman
  • Ivo Babuška

Organizations

  • University of Maryland

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Algorithms
  • Arithmetic
  • Computational Complexity
  • Computations
  • Computers
  • Contracts
  • Cost Analysis
  • Equations
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Linear Algebra
  • Linear Systems
  • Mathematics
  • Military Research
  • Parallel Computing
  • Standards
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.