A mesh partitioning tool and its applications to parallel processing

This paper describes the features and implementation of a mesh partitioning tool called PSAINT and its applications to parallel processing research and education. PSAINT is an interactive graphics program with a friendly interface for user-program interaction. It offers several automatic mesh partitioning algorithms as well as a set of graphics tools for manual partitioning and for evaluation and modification of the results of automatic partitioning. The program automatically generates various statistics results and allows for visualization of the mesh partitions. PSAINT was originally developed as a key component in an integrated parallel finite element analysis system. Recently, it has been extended to facilitate evaluation and comparative studies of automatic mesh partitioning algorithms. It has also been used to aid the teaching in a graduate-level structural engineering course for parallel processing.