Abstract: Explicit finite element analysis of contact-impact problems on parallel computers with distributed memory is concerned. Subject to the characteristics of finite element method and the structure of supercomputer, a parallel algorithm is designed for explicit finite element method based on message passing and domain decomposition. A new domain decomposition method based on the element type and material model is specially presented for parallelization of explicit finite element simulation of crashworthiness. The algorithms have been implemented in the GEFEP-P software, a self-developed program for simulation of crashworthiness, on the Shengwei supercomputer. Numerical example shows that parallel computation improve the efficiency of simulation rapidly.

Key words: Crashworthiness, Domain decomposition, Finite element method, Parallel computation