Solution of finite element problems using hybrid parallelization with MPI and OpenMP

Resumen

The Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to solve problems like solid deformation and heat diffusion in domains with complex geometries. This kind of geometries requires discretization with millions of elements; this is equivalent to solve systems of equations with sparse matrices and tens or hundreds of millions of variables. The aim is to use computer clusters to solve these systems. The solution method used is Schur substructuration. Using it is possible to divide a large system of equations into many small ones to solve them more efficiently. This method allows parallelization. MPI (Message Passing Interface) is used to distribute the systems of equations to solve each one in a computer of a cluster. Each system of equations is solved using a solver implemented to use OpenMP as a local parallelization method.