Parallel solution to ill-conditioned FE geomechanical problems

Parallel computers are potentially very attractive for the implementation of large size geomechanical models. One of the main difficulties of parallelization, however, relies on the efficient solution of the frequently ill-conditioned algebraic system arising from the linearization of the discretized equilibrium equations. While very efficient preconditioners have been developed for sequential computers, not much work has been devoted to parallel solution algorithms in geomechanics. The present study investigates the state-of-the-art performance of the factorized sparse approximate inverse (FSAI) as a preconditioner for the iterative solution of ill-conditioned geomechanical problems. Pre-and post-filtration strategies are experimented with to increase the FSAI efficiency. Numerical results show that FSAI exhibits a promising potential for parallel geomechanical models mainly because of its almost ideal scalability. With the present formulation, however, at least 4 or 8 processors are required in the selected test cases to outperform one of the most efficient sequential algorithms available for FE geomechanics, i.e. the multilevel incomplete factorization (MIF). Further research is needed to improve the FSAI efficiency with a more effective selection of the preconditioner non-zero pattern. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.