Parallel, Three-dimensional Finite Element Mesh Generation Based on Octree Data Structures

This paper describes the implementation of a three-dimensional mesh generation program based on octree data structures, capable of generating large meshes, operating in a parallel, distributed memory computing under the Single-Program, Multiple-Data model of computation. In order to compensate for the limitations in the standard octree technique, some enhancements to it are developed and implemented, based on the authors’ previous work for two-dimensional problems. Also, communication routines are developed for the exchange of information among processors. Using both the enhanced data structures and the communication routines developed, algorithms are then created for performing the octree mesh generation. Finally, some test runs are carried out on sample meshes in a cluster of Linux workstations using the MPICH library and GNU C compiler, and graphs of computing time vs number of processors are obtained. A. J. Barragán, J.S. Reeve