Electrostatic Finite Element Matrix Population
On Graphics Processing Units
David Abraham, under the supervision of Prof. Dennis D. Giannacopoulos
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
INTRODUCTION
Finite element analysis is a method by which approximate solutions to differential equations,
such as Maxwell’s equations, can be obtained through numerical methods. Traditionally, these
simulations have been run on conventional single core processors (CPUs). However, as the
complexity and size of computations grow, so do execution times. In order to combat this, focus
is now being placed on using graphics processing units (GPUs) and their massive parallel
architecture to accelerate computations.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
When performing a finite element analysis, there are three main steps. The first is to discretize
the simulation region into pieces called elements, over which the numerical approximation is
applied. The following step is to compute coupling coefficients on a per element basis and
populate the problem matrix. The last step is solving the resulting system of equations for the
unknown potentials.
The objective of this project, therefore, is to demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of using
GPUs in finite element computations by parallelizing the middle step, matrix population.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
To begin, a base simulation utilizing both Matlab R2011a and C was
written. Matlab was made to handle discretization, triangulation and
matrix solving while the C code handled the matrix population.
Simulations were constructed of 4 different sizes, and data was
collected in the form of execution times. Control trials were run
serially on an Intel i7 Q740 processor running at 1.734 GHz. The
same code in C was then ported to NVIDIA’s CUDA GPU
programming language to be executed in parallel on an NVIDIA
GeForce 310M running at 1.530 GHz.
RESULTS
The following results were obtained by running 10 simulations and averaging the execution
times. The plots demonstrate execution times as a function of number of variables, (31 721, 126
008, 502 286, 2 005 658) the left plot as an XY scatter and right plot as a bar graph.
The above charts demonstrate the breakdown of time spent in the simulation according to the
task being executed for both CPU and GPU simulations.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it has been demonstrated that parallelization of electrostatic finite element
analysis matrix population offers significant improvement over its serially executed counterpart.
By utilizing the 16 CUDA cores available in the GPU, a minimum speed up of 3.31 times and a
maximum speed up of 6.07 times for an average of 4.11 times as fast were achieved. GPU use
in these types of computations therefore constitutes a viable option for reduction in
computation times. In order to further explore this topic, the above research may be repeated
using a more sophisticated version of the finite element method. This more sophisticated
version could include 3D computations, sources and higher order element interpolation as
opposed to the simple 1st order triangular homogeneous Laplace solutions obtained here.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Prof. D. Giannacopoulos for all his help and insight during the course of
this project, the Faculty of Engineering at McGill for giving me the opportunity to participate
and the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada for providing funding.
Background image and logos:
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• NVIDIA. (2011, December 14). NVIDIA Releases CUDA 4.1. Retrieved August 7, 2012, from AnandTech: <http://www.anandtech.com/show/5238/nvidia-
releases-cuda-41-cuda-goes-llvm-and-open-source-kind-of>