Parallel computation of a damage localization problem using parallel multifrontal solver

In this paper, nonlinear parallel structural analyses are performed using a distributed memory sparse direct multifrontal linear solver. The linear solver is fully parallel, working with substructures determined by a parallel graph partitioner. The parallel performance of the nonlinear parallel algorithm is demonstrated using damage localization problems for two and three dimensional crack models. Convergence studies of the predicted local variation of damage at the crack tip are performed using discretizations with up to one million degrees of freedom. Implementation issues for damage localization problems are discussed, including the selection of independent variables and the use of Riks continuation method.We acknowledge the financial support of Ministry of Science and Technology by National Research Laboratory program. (grant number 00-N-NL-01-C-026)