Algorithm 870

Abstract

We present a geometric domain decomposition method and its implementation, which produces good domain decompositions in terms of three basic criteria: (1) The boundary of the subdomains create good angles, that is, angles no smaller than a given tolerance Φ 0 , where the value of Φ 0 is determined by the application which will use the domain decomposition. (2) The size of the separator should be relatively small compared to the area of the subdomains. (3) The maximum area of the subdomains should be close to the average subdomain area. The domain decomposition method uses an approximation of a Medial Axis as an auxiliary structure for constructing the boundary of the subdomains (separators). The N -way decomposition is based on the “divide and conquer” algorithmic paradigm and on a smoothing procedure that eliminates the creation of any new artifacts in the subdomains. This approach produces well shaped uniform and graded domain decompositions, which are suitable for parallel mesh generation.