Architecture-Adaptable Finite Element Modelling: A Case Study Using an Ocean Circulation Simulation

We describe an architecture-adaptable methodology for the parallel implementation of finite element numerical models of physical systems. We use a model of time-dependent ocean currents as our working example. The heart of the computation is the solution of a banded linear system, and we describe an algorithm based on the domain decompositionmethod to solve the banded system. The algorithm is represented in a divide-and-conquer framework facilitates easy implementation of various algorithmic options. The process is straightforward and amenable to automation. We demonstrate the validity of this approach using two radically different target machine, a workstation network and a supercomputer. Our results show very good speedup on both platforms.