Unified framework for finite element assembly

  • Authors:

  • M. S. Alnaes;A. Logg;K-A. Mardal;O. Skavhaug;H. P. Langtangen

  • Affiliations:

  • Center for Biomedical Computing, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway.;Center for Biomedical Computing, Simula Research Laboratory, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway.;Center for Biomedical Computing, Simula Research Laboratory, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway.;Center for Biomedical Computing, Simula Research Laboratory, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway.;Center for Biomedical Computing, Simula Research Laboratory, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

At the heart of any finite element simulation is the assembly of matrices and vectors from discrete variational forms. We propose a general interface between problem-specific and general-purpose components of finite element programs. This interface is called Unified Form-assembly Code (UFC). A wide range of finite element problems is covered, including mixed finite elements and discontinuous Galerkin methods. We discuss how the UFC interface enables implementations of variational form evaluation to be independent of mesh and linear algebra components. UFC does not depend on any external libraries, and is released into the public domain.