Publications

SIERRA Framework Version 3: h-Adaptivity Design and Use

Stewart, James R.; Stewart, James R.; Edwards, Harold C.

This paper presents a high-level overview of the algorithms and supporting functionality provided by SIERRA Framework Version 3 for h-adaptive finite-element mechanics application development. Also presented is a fairly comprehensive description of what is required by the application codes to use the SIERRA h-adaptivity services. In general, the SIERRA framework provides the functionality for hierarchically subdividing elements in a distributed parallel environment, as well as dynamic load balancing. The mechanics application code is required to supply an a posteriori error indicator, prolongation and restriction operators for the field variables, hanging-node constraint handlers, and execution control code. This paper does not describe the Application Programming Interface (API), although references to SIERRA framework classes are given where appropriate.