Scalable Implementation of Finite Elements by NASA (ScIFEN) v.2(LAR-19121-1)

Scalable Implementation of Finite Elements by NASA (ScIFEN) is a three-dimensional solid mechanics code that provides a parallel implementation of the finite element method (FEM). Generally speaking, the FEM is a numerical technique for finding approximate solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs). In particular, ScIFEN uses the FEM to solve the PDEs that govern the motion and deformation of solid materials under the action of external loads. Thus, ScIFEN uses input information describing a solid's geometry, material properties, applied forces, etc. to compute and return the resulting mechanical response (e.g. displacements, stresses, etc.). ScIFEN is a parallel code written in C++ and designed to scale to large problems that can be run on supercomputers across many processors. This scalability and efficiency is enabled through the utilization of several open-source high performance computing libraries. The most heavily used libraries include: 1) Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) for the parallel solution of linear/non-linear systems of equations, 2) Hierarchical Data Format (HDF5) for general parallel input/output, and 3) Mesh Orientated Database (MOAB) for storage and managing finite element mesh data in parallel. ScIFEN includes several standard linear and non-linear material models including linear elastic isotropic, linear hardening plasticity, and crystal plasticity models. It supports various applied loadings including prescribed displacements and forces, surface tractions and pressures, and body forces. ScIFEN supports both implicit time integration (ScIFEi driver) and explicit time integration (ScIFEx driver).