Due to the high demands of finite-element simulations for computing power parallel adaptive approaches have shown to be successful. Our research group has designed an object-oriented tool-box named PadFEM for stationary and instationary finite-element problems where the data-structure supports two and three dimensional meshes. Additionally a selection of algorithms which are used for sequential and parallel finite-element simulations are included.

The main features of the PadFEM data-structure are presented and also an overview of the different modules is given.

Subsequently the difficulties of parallel mesh refinement which are mostly dependent on the distribution of the data are sketched.

The implemented parallel refinement algorithm of PadFEM is described. It combines the benefits of longest edge bisection with the locality of methods using a conformal-closure, i.e. "green" edges. The mesh refinement is done in two phases: The first phase processes the partition interior and the second one cleans up the border area. Communication is only done between the phases where packages of messages are exchanged between neighbored partitions. Since element divisions of the second phase are with green edges the refinement process in the second phase can be kept local.

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