Derived data structure algorithms for unstructured finite element meshes

A set of derived data structure algorithms for unstructured finite element meshes is presented. Both serial and parallel algorithms are described for each data structure. Colouring groups for the elements are used to facilitate parallelization on shared memory architectures. Scaling studies indicate that the parallel algorithms are most efficient when the number of elements per processor is on the order of 10(6) or higher, and overall efficiencies of 60-70% are achieved down to 0.5 x 10(6) elements per processor. Although the meshes under consideration are tetrahedral, the algorithms are general in nature and can be extended to arbitrary element types with minimal effort. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.