ParFUM: A Parallel Framework for Unstructured Meshes for Scalable Dynamic Physics Applications
Authors:
Orion Lawlor, Sayantan Chakravorty, Terry Wilmarth, Nilesh Choudhury, Isaac Dooley, Gengbin Zheng, and Laxmikant Kale
Parallel Programming Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Engineering with Computers, Journal, 2006
Unstructured meshes are used in many engineering applications with irregular domains, from elastic deformation problems to crack propagation to fluid flow. Because of their complexity and dynamic behavior, the development of scalable parallel software for these applications is challenging. The Charm++ Parallel Framework for Unstructured Meshes allows one to write parallel programs that operate on unstructured meshes with only minimal knowledge of parallel computing, while making it possible to achieve excellent scalability even for complex applications. Charm++'s message-driven model enables computation/communication overlap, while its run-time load balancing capabilities make it possible to react to the changes in computational load that occur in dynamic physics applications. The framework is highly flexible and has been enhanced with numerous capabilities for the manipulation of unstructured meshes, such as parallel mesh adaptivity and collision detection.