A parallel adaptive tetrahedral mesh generation program using the advancing front method has been described. The problem domain is initially defined by a course background mesh of tetrahedral elements which form the input for the finite element analysis and from which adaptive parameters are calculated. Four-noded, constant strain tetrahedra are used for the examples presented in this paper. The background mesh is then divided into a number of subdomains which are comprised of background tetrahedral elements. Parallel adaptive mesh generation is carried out by remeshing each subdomain concurrently using the nodal adaptive parameters previously calculated. Within each subdomain mesh generation is undertaken by refining each background element, contained within the subdomain, in turn. The remeshing of these tetrahedra is undertaken using the advancing front method. Separate code was written for sequential applications to run on a PC and parallel applications to run on a transputer network. The code was merged in such a way that it may be compiled and run in four different environments: the Borland Turbo C compiler to perform sequential runs on a PC; the GNU C compiler to perform sequential runs within a UNIX environment; the 3L Parallel C compiler to run parallel applications on a transputer network; and the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) for distributed runs within the UNIX environment. The program has also been enhanced to increase the robustness of the algorithm, to increase the quality of the resulting meshes and ensure compatibility of tetrahedral element faces that form the boundary of the subdomains.

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