Publications

A data storage model for novel partial differential equation descretizations

Pebay, Philippe P.; Koegler, Wendy S.

The purpose of this report is to define a standard interface for storing and retrieving novel, non-traditional partial differential equation (PDE) discretizations. Although it focuses specifically on finite elements where state is associated with edges and faces of volumetric elements rather than nodes and the elements themselves (as implemented in ALEGRA), the proposed interface should be general enough to accommodate most discretizations, including hp-adaptive finite elements and even mimetic techniques that define fields over arbitrary polyhedra. This report reviews the representation of edge and face elements as implemented by ALEGRA. It then specifies a convention for storing these elements in EXODUS files by extending the EXODUS API to include edge and face blocks in addition to element blocks. Finally, it presents several techniques for rendering edge and face elements using VTK and ParaView, including the use of VTK's generic dataset interface for interpolating values interior to edges and faces.