Parallel Mesh Generation - Overview

Overview

Parallel mesh generation procedures in general decompose the original 2-dimensional (2D) or 3-dimensional (3D) mesh generation problem into N smaller subproblems which are solved (i.e., meshed) concurrently using P processors or threads. The subproblems can be formulated to be either tightly coupled, partially coupled or even decoupled. The coupling of the subproblems determines the intensity of the communication and the amount/type of synchronization required between the subproblems.

The challenges in parallel mesh generation methods are: to maintain stability of the parallel mesher (i.e., retain the quality of finite elements generated by state-of-the-art sequential codes) and at the same time achieve 100% code re-use (i.e., leverage the continuously evolving and fully functional off-the-shelf sequential meshers) without substantial deterioration of the scalability of the parallel mesher.

There is a difference between parallel mesh generation and parallel triangulation. In parallel triangulation a pre-defined set of points is used to generate in parallel triangles that cover the convex hull of the set of points. A very efficient algorithm for parallel Delaunay triangulations appears in Blelloch et al. This algorithm is extended in Clemens and Walkington for parallel mesh generation.

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