Performance of a parallel implementation of the FMM for electromagnetics applications

This paper describes the parallel fast multipole method implemented in EADS integral equations code. We will focus on the electromagnetics applications such as CEM and RCS computation. We solve Maxwell equations in the frequency domain by a finite boundary-element method. The complex dense system of equations obtained cannot be solved using classical methods when the number of unknowns exceeds approximately 10(5). The use of iterative solvers (such as GMRES) and fast methods (such as the fast multipole method (FMM)) to speed up the matrix-vector product allows us to break this limit. We present the parallel out-of-core implementation of this method developed at CERMICS/INRIA and integrated in EADS industrial software. We were able to solve unprecedented industrial applications containing up to 25 million unknowns. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.