A frontal code for the solution of sparse positive-definite symmetric systems arising from finite-element applications

ABSTRACT

We describe the design, implementation, and performance of a frontal code for the solution of large sparse symmetric systems of linear finite-element equations. The code is intended primarily for positive-definite systems, since numerical pivoting is not performed. The resulting software package, MA62, will be included in the Harwell Subroutine Library. We illustrate the performance of our new code on a range of problems arising from real engineering and industrial applications. The performance of the code is compared with that of the Harwell Subroutine Library general frontal solver MA42 and with other positive-definite codes from the Harwell Subroutine Library.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.1 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
      G.1.0 General
          Subjects: Numerical algorithms

Additional Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.1 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
      G.1.3 Numerical Linear Algebra
          Subjects: Sparse, structured, and very large systems (direct and iterative methods)

General Terms:
Algorithms, Performance

Keywords:
Gaussian elimination, Level 3 BLAS, finite-element equations, sparse symmetric linear equations, symmetric frontal method