Optimal Domain-Partitioning Algorithm for Real-Life Transportation Networks and Finite Element Meshes

For large-scale engineering problems, it has been generally accepted that domain-partitioning algorithms are highly desirable for general-purpose finite element analysis (FEA). This paper presents a heuristic numerical algorithm that can efficiently partition any transportation network (or any finite element mesh) into a specified number of subdomains (usually depending on the number of parallel processors available on a computer), which will result in “minimising the total number of system BOUNDARY nodes” (as a primary criterion) and achieve “balancing work loads” amongst the subdomains (as a secondary criterion). The proposed seven-step heuristic algorithm (with enhancement features) is based on engineering common sense and observation. This current work has the following novelty features: (i) complicated graph theories that are NOT needed and (ii) unified treatments of transportation networks (using line elements) and finite element (FE) meshes (using triangular, tetrahedral, and brick elements) that can be performed through transforming the original network (or FE mesh) into a pseudo-transportation network which only uses line elements. Several examples, including real-life transportation networks and finite element meshes (using triangular/brick/tetrahedral elements) are used (under MATLAB computer environments) to explain, validate and compare the proposed algorithm’s performance with the popular METIS software.