Parallelising computational microstructure simulations for metallic materials with OpenMP

Abstract

This work focuses on the OpenMP parallelisation of an iterative linear equation solver and parallel usage of an explicit solver for the nonlinear phase-field equations. Both solvers are used in microstructure evolution simulations based on the phase-field method. For the latter one, we compare a graph based solution using OpenMP tasks to a first-come-first-serve scheduling using an OpenMP critical section. We discuss how the task solution might benefit from the introduction of OpenMP task dependencies. The concepts are implemented in the software MICRESS which is mainly used by material engineers for the simulation of the evolving material microstructure during processing. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.