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Abstract-Algorithms are described for the resolution of shared vertices and higher-dimensional interfaces on domain-decomposed parallel mesh, and for ghost exchange between neighboring processors. Performance data is given for large (up to 64M tet and 32M hex element) meshes on up to 16k processors. Shared interface resolution for structured mesh is also described. Small modifications are required to enable the algorithm to match vertices based on geometric location, useful for joining multi-piece meshes; this capability is also demonstrated.

Much of the effort required to create a new simulation code goes into developing infrastructure for mesh data manipulation, adaptive refinement, design optimization, and so forth. This infrastructure is an obvious target for code reuse, except that implementations of these functionalities are typically tied to specific data structures. In this article, we describe a software component---an abstract data model and programming interface---designed to provide low-level mesh query and manipulation support for meshing and solution algorithms. The component’s data model provides a data abstraction, completely hiding all details of how mesh data is stored, while its interface defines how applications can interact with that data. Because the component has been carefully designed to be general purpose and efficient, it provides a practical platform for implementing high-level mesh operations independently of the underlying mesh data structures. After describing the data model and interface, we provide several usage examples, each of which has been used successfully with multiple implementations of the interface functionality. The overhead due to accessing mesh data through the interface rather than directly accessing the underlying mesh data is shown to be acceptably small.

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