Derived data structure algorithms for unstructured finite element meshes

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Vol 54, Num 7, pp.945 - 963, July 2002

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

Abstract

A set of derived data structure algorithms for unstructured finite element meshes is presented. Both serial and parallel algorithms are described for each data structure. Colouring groups for the elements are used to facilitate parallelization on shared memory architectures. Scaling studies indicate that the parallel algorithms are most efficient when the number of elements per processor is on the order of 106 or higher, and overall efficiencies of 60–70% are achieved down to 0.5×106 elements per processor. Although the meshes under consideration are tetrahedral, the algorithms are general in nature and can be extended to arbitrary element types with minimal effort.