Parallel Partitioning of Unstructured Meshes

A method is outlined for optimising graph partitions which arise in mapping unstructured mesh calculations to parallel computers. The method employs a combination of iterative techniques to both evenly balance theworkload andminimise the number and volume of interprocessor communications. They are designed to work efficiently in parallel as well as sequentially and when combined with a fast direct partitioning technique (such as the Greedy algorithm) to give an initial partition, the resulting two-stage process proves itself to be both a powerful and flexible solution to the static graph-partitioning problem. The algorithms can also be used for dynamic load-balancing and a clustering technique can additionally be employed to speed up the whole process. Experiments indicate that the resulting parallel code can provide high quality partitions, independent of the initial partition, within a few seconds.