Parallel Computing of Multi-scale Finite Element Sheet Forming Analyses Based on Crystallographic Homogenization Method

Abstract. Since the multi-scale finite element analysis (FEA) requires large computation time, development of the parallel computing technique for the multi-scale analysis is inevitable. A parallel elastic/crystalline viscoplastic FEA code based on a crystallographic homogenization method has been developed using PC cluster. The homogenization scheme is introduced to compute macro-continuum plastic deformations and material properties by considering a polycrystal texture. Since the dynamic explicit method is applied to this method, the analysis using micro crystal structures computes the homogenized stresses in parallel based on domain partitioning of macro-continuum without solving simultaneous linear equations. The micro-structure is defined by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and the Electron Back Scan Diffraction (EBSD) measurement based crystal orientations. In order to improve parallel performance of elastoplasticity analysis, which dynamically and partially increases computational costs during the analysis, a dynamic workload balancing technique is introduced to the parallel analysis. The technique, which is an automatic task distribution method, is realized by adaptation of subdomain size for macro-continuum to maintain the computational load balancing among cluster nodes. The analysis code is applied to estimate the polycrystalline sheet metal formability.