Parallel/vector improvements of the frontal method

We present, discuss, and report on the performance of two combined parallel/vector frontal algorithms which have been incorporated in a production finite element code. Two parallelization strategies are described. The first approach is algebra driven and is recommended for the solution of problems with a large bandwidth on a coarse grain configuration. The second strategy is targeted for finer grain systems; it blends the first one with a substructuring technique that is based on a careful partitioning of the finite element mesh into a series of subdomains. Using only 4 IBM 3090/VF processors, the proposed algorithms are shown to deliver speed‐ups as high as 17 with respect to a serial non‐vectorized frontal solver.