Title: Parallel Hexahedral Mesh Generation for Geophysical and Seismic Engineering

Speaker: Emanuele Casarotti, California Institute of Technology, Marco Stupazzini, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Germany

Date/Time: Monday, February 26, 2007, 11:00 – 12:00 noon

Location: CSRI Building, Room 90 (Sandia NM)

Brief Abstract: Wave propagation phenomena can be studied at the present time thanks to powerful numerical techniques stemming from finite differences to finite and spectral elements (SEM). Spurred by the computational power made available by parallel computers, these techniques have embraced the area of three-dimensional wave propagation.  In particular, the SEM has shown to be capable of handling a wide spectrum of simulations ranging from the geophysical field both at global and regional scale, up to the seismic engineering field. This successful numerical technique (like many other) still requires a first and fundamental step: the decomposition of the computational domain into a family of non-overlapping hexahedrals.

The discretization of the area under study should be capable of reproducing the topography, the 3D shape of alluvial basins or seismic faults systems and finally the mechanical properties of the different materials.  While 3D unstructured tetrahedral meshes can be achieved quite easily with commercial or non-commercial software, the creation of a 3D non-structured hexahedral mesh is still recognized as a challenging problem. The personal experience of the authors suggests that one of the most promising software capable of meshing complex 3D domains is Sandia’s CUBIT Meshing and Geometry Toolkit.

We present some case studies in different regions with some solved and unsolved challenges.  In particular, we focus on some automatic and parallel mesh procedures.

CSRI POC: Steven Owen, (505) 284-6599