Parallel Implementation of the hp-Version of the Finite Element Method on a Shared-Memory Architecture

Abstract

We study the costs incurred by an implementation of the hp-version of the finite element for solving two-dimensional elliptic partial differential equations on a shared-memory parallel computer. For a collection of benchmark problems, we systematically examine the costs in central processing unit time of various individual subtasks performed by the finite element solver, including construction of local stiffness matrices, elimination of unknowns associated with element interiors, and global solution on element interfaces by a preconditioned conjugate gradient method. Our general observations are that the costs of the naturally parallel computations associated with local elements are significantly higher than any global computations, so that the latter do not represent a significant bottleneck to parallel efficiency. However, memory conflicts place some limitations on the sizes or number of local problems that can be handled efficiently in parallel.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA231506

Entities

People

  • H. C. Elman
  • Ivo Babuška
  • K. Markley

Organizations

  • University of Maryland

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Algorithms
  • Computations
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Crossbar Switches
  • Differential Equations
  • Equations
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Floating Point Operations
  • Military Research
  • Parallel Computing
  • Parallel Processing
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Research Facilities
  • Standards
  • Statistics

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics

Readers

  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)