Domain decomposition based parallel contact algorithm and its implementation to explicit finite element analysis

Computer simulations are about to replace experiments in various fields related to dynamic problems, such as crashworthiness of vehicles, vibration of nuclear reactors in earthquake, and ultrasonic wave propagation in cracked solid for nondestructive evaluation. For solving such large scale problems, parallel processing has become one of key technologies. In this paper, a parallel contact algorithm suitable for a domain decomposition technique is proposed, and implemented on a dynamic finite element analysis code based on an explicit time integration scheme. Parallel efficiency of the code is tested through sample analyses on a PC cluster.