Page 304 - The Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method
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ALTERNATIVE HARDWARE ARCHITECTURES 287
from one sub-domain to the other. Discrete elements can also interact over the sub-
domain boundaries.
Thus, a PC running the problem comprising discrete elements from one sub-domain
must communicate to the PC running the problems comprising the discrete elements from
the neighbouring domains. To solve the problem shown in Figure 9.5, a cluster of five
PCs is needed. The simplest case is when all five PCs are identical. These PCs need to
communicate to each other as shown in Figure 9.6.
Very often 2D domains are subdivided in a chess-pattern type subdivision as shown in
Figure 9.7. It is evident that each PC is connected to the four neighbouring PCs. Similar
domain subdivision and PC assignment in 3D would require each PC communicating to
six neighbouring PCs. A cluster of PCs dedicated to distributed computing represents in
essence a parallel computing architecture, except that each element of such an architecture
PC-1 PC-2 PC-3
PC-4 PC-5
Figure 9.6 An optimal configuration of PCs with network connectivity between PCs for problem
shown in Figure 9.5.
PC-1 PC-2 PC-3
PC-4 PC-5 PC-6
PC-7 PC-8 PC-9
Figure 9.7 A 2D domain divided into sub-domains with a PC assigned to each sub-domain,
together with connectivity between PCs.
