Large-scale contact/impact simulation and sensitivity analysis on distributed-memory computers Original Research Article

A parallel computational strategy is presented for simulating frictional contact/impact response and evaluating sensitivity coefficients for large-scale finite element models of composite structures. The explicit central difference scheme is used for the temporal integration of the semi-discrete governing equations. The two key elements of the strategy are: (a) an element-based domain decomposition technique; and (b) a robust exchange algorithm for communicating information across subdomain interfaces. An implementation of the strategy suitable for any distributed-memory computing system (including clusters of workstations) is described. Numerical results are presented for three structures impacting a rigid surface. The three structures are: an inclined composite cylinder, an inclined stiffened cylinder and an Advanced Composites Technology (ACT) program test panel. For each of these problems, the performance characteristics of the computational procedure are assessed on the IBM SP2 parallel computer system.