Parallel asynchronous variational integrators

This paper presents a scalable parallel variational time integration algorithm for nonlinear elastodynamics with the distinguishing feature of allowing each element in the mesh to have a possibly different time step. Furthermore, the algorithm is obtained from a discrete variational principle, and hence it is termed parallel asynchronous variational integrator (PAVI). The underlying variational structure grants it outstanding conservation properties. Based on a domain decomposition strategy, PAVI combines a careful scheduling of computations with fully asynchronous communications to provide a very efficient methodology for finite element models with even mild distributions of time step sizes. Numerical tests are shown to illustrate PAVI’s performance on both slow and fast networks, showing scalability properties similar to the best parallel explicit synchronous algorithms, with lower execution time. Finally, a numerical example in which PAVI needs ≈100 times less computing than an explicit synchronous algorithm is shown. Copyright q 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.