Finite Element Analysis

Finite Element Analysis is a very computational intensive technique for solving a wide range of problems. This page will give you some suggestions for improving FEM performance of ISV codes such as Abaqus, ANSYS, and Nastran, as well as open-source codes such as OpenSees, Tahoe, OOFEM, Calculix, Impact, Elmer, Warp3D, MechSysNG, Kratos, PDD, Adventure, deal.ii GeoFEM, ParaFEM that are focused on solving solid mechanics problems with FEA techniques.

Non-FEM Solver tips

The following list of items are not related to the actual FEM solver itself. But since solvers range so widely, these tips are somewhat generic and may or may not help your specific applicaiton.

IO

FEM codes, for the most part, do a great deal of local IO. This is a result of several possibilities including the solver itself (an out-of-core solver) or retaining intermediate results to make post-processing, including stress recovery, much faster.

Based on some testing of commercial FEM codes, here are some tips for improving performance.

• Use RAID-0 for the local scratch space.
• If possible use EXT2 or XFS for the local IO