Parallel dynamic graph partitioning for adaptive unstructured meshes

A parallel method for the dynamic partitioning of unstructured meshes is described. The method introduces a new iterative optimization technique known as relative gain optimization which both balances the workload and attempts to minimize the interprocessor communications overhead. Experiments on a series of adaptively refined meshes indicate that the algorithm provides partitions of an equivalent or higher quality to static partitioners (which do not reuse the existing partition) and much more rapidly, Perhaps more importantly, the algorithm results in only a small fraction of the amount of data migration compared to the static partitioners. (C) 1997 Academic Press.