A block sparse shared-memory multifrontal finite element solver for problems of structural mechanics

S. Y. Fialko

S. Y. Fialko Institute of Computer Modeling, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow

Abstract

The presented method is used in finite-element analysis software developed for multicore and multiprocessor shared-memory computers, or it can be used on single-processor personal computers under the operating systems Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista, widely popular in small or mediumsized design offices. The method has the following peculiar features: it works with any ordering; it uses an object-oriented approach on which a dynamic, highly memory-efficient algorithm is based; it performs a block factoring in the frontal matrix that entails a high-performance arithmetic on each processor and ensures a good scalability in shared-memory systems. Many years of experience with this solver in the SCAD software system have shown the method's high efficiency and reliability with various large-scale problems of structural mechanics (hundreds of thousands to millions of equations).

Keywords

finite element method, large-scale problems, multifrontal method, sparse matrices, ordering, multithreading,

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