SPINET: A Parallel Computing Approach to Spine Simulations
Peter Kropf, Edgar F. A. Lederer, Thomas Steffen, Karl Guggisberg, Jean-Guy Schneider & Peter Schwab
| Résumé |
Research in scientitic programming enables us to realize more and
more complex applications, and on the other hand,
application-driven demands on computing methods and power are
continuously growing. Therefore, interdisciplinary approaches
become more widely used. The interdisciplinary SPINET project
presented in this article applies modern scientific computing tools
to biomechanical simulations: parallel computing and symbolic and
modern functional programming. The target application is the human
spine. Simulations of the spine help us to investigate and better
understand the mechanisms of back pain and spinal injury. Two
approaches have been used: the first uses the finite element method
for high-performance simulations of static biomechanical models, and
the second generates a simulation developmenttool for experimenting
with different dynamic models. A finite element program for static
analysis has been parallelized for the MUSIC machine. To solve the
sparse system of linear equations, a conjugate gradient solver
(iterative method) and a frontal solver (direct method) have been
implemented. The preprocessor required for the frontal solver is
written in the modern functional programming language SML, the
solver itself in C, thus exploiting the characteristic advantages
of both functional and imperative programming. The speedup analysis
of both solvers show very satisfactory results for this irregular
problem. A mixed symbolic-numeric environment for rigid body system
simulations is presented. It automatically generates C code from a
problem specification expressed by the Lagrange formalism using
Maple. |
| Mots-clés |
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| Citation | P. Kropf, et al., "SPINET: A Parallel Computing Approach to Spine Simulations," Scientific Programming, vol. 5, p. 15-24, Jan. 1996. |
| Type | Article de périodique (Anglais) |
| Date de publication | 22-1-1996 |
| Nom du périodique | Scientific Programming |
| Volume | 5 |
| Numéro | 1 |
| Pages | 15-24 |
| URL | http://content.iospress.com/articles/scientific-programmi... |