Contact-impact simulations on massively parallel SIMD supercomputers

The implementation of explicit finite element methods with contact-impact on massively parallel SIMD computers is described. The basic parallel finite element algorithm employs an exchange process which minimizes interprocessor communication at the expense of redundant computations and storage. The contact-impact algorithm is based on the pinball method in which compatibility is enforced by preventing interpenetration on spheres embedded in elements adjacent to surfaces. The enhancements to the pinball algorithm include a parallel assembled surface normal algorithm and a parallel detection of interpenetrating pairs. Some timings with and without contact-impact are given.