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The use of dynamic data structures in finite element applications
Author(s) -
Hawken D. M.,
Townsend P.,
Webster M. F.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.1620330903
Subject(s) - data structure , computer science , finite element method , dynamic data , tree structure , tree (set theory) , algorithm , polygon mesh , theoretical computer science , mathematics , engineering , mathematical analysis , computer graphics (images) , structural engineering , programming language
The derivation of more efficient algorithms for finite element applications is not the primary goal of this article, but rather the efficient implementation of existing algorithms using dynamic data structures. In some cases the algorithms may be far from optimal, but serve to illustrate the advantages of dynamic data structures. In the first section, a tree data structure termed a PATRICIA tree is described and is shown to be suitable for storing data associated with finite element meshes. The manner in which the tree is constructed guarantees to provide rapid data retrieval times, competitive with those associated with static array data structures, whilst providing the added advantages of a dynamic data structure. The second section introduces a list of lists (LOL) data structure which is used to produce an efficient implementation of an example of a bandwidth reduction algorithm. Furthermore, the LOL data structure is also shown to be appropriate for implementing a novel method for extracting the domain boundary, with its orientation, from a given finite element connectivity matrix.