Keywords: partitioning, parallel processing, structural analysis.

A further important benefit of the proposed domain partitioning approach is that it allows the recovery of child partition forces and a condensed tangent stiffness matrix at the interface boundary relatively easily using the dual super-element, which can be achieved in a frontal solution method by placing the child super-element at the end of the element ordering list. When all the other elements of the partition are assembled and the associated interior freedoms are eliminated, the remaining equilibrium equations contain the forces and condensed tangent stiffness matrix for the super-element only, which can be communicated to the dual super-element in the parent structure/sub-structure. The parent process treats the partition super-elements similar to other finite elements, providing displacements that can be communicated to child processes of the dual super-elements and receiving interface forces and condensed tangent stiffness matrices in return. Thus, this approach is effectively identical in performance to the monolithic approach with high speed-ups due to parallel processing and ease of modelling. Several examples are used in the paper to demonstrate the benefits and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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