[CIG-SHORT] Might CIG Support Fast Multipole Method in Future?

[Thorsten Becker]

Dear Terry,

I think this project is an interesting idea and would be very useful to
the boundary element (BEM), fault modeling community. 

BEM approaches (including fast multipole approximations) are also being
proposed/used now in the mantle circulation community, where, e.g., a
geometrically complex slab may be embedded in a homogeneous mantle (work
by Gabriele Morra & Co).

While the advantages of BEM for, e.g., idealized fault interaction
models compared to finite elements are clear, in my opinion the jury on
how useful BEMs are for mantle flow is still out. 

I wonder if this may be too specialized and long-term project for CIG
right now that CIG-I is running out? 

Cheers

Thorsten




On Fri, 2008-05-16 at 19:50 -0400, Terry Tullis wrote:
> Dear CIG Short Community,
> 
> This is to suggest the possibility that CIG might be persuaded to
> undertake an effort in the future to develop a well-documented,
> user-friendly Fast Multipole Method library. Such a library would be
> suitable for use by anyone having problems that can be treated via
> Green’s functions. In the field of earthquake mechanics these arise in
> using the boundary element method, but there may be several other
> applications in geophysics that might make such a library useful for
> the CIG community. The advantage of the Fast Multipole Method is that
> the compute time, and in some problems the memory requirements, goes
> as N log N where N is the number of elements being treated, whereas
> without using this technique they go as N squared.
> 
> I have attached a Word doc that discusses this more fully for those
> who wish to learn more.
> 
> Cheers,
> Terry
> 
> Terry E. Tullis
> Department of Geological Sciences
> Brown University
> Providence, RI 02912-1846
> 
> email: Terry_Tullis at brown.edu
> web: wwww.geo.brown.edu/faculty/ttullis/index.html
> 
> office: (401) 863-3829
> lab: (401) 863-1923
> Fax: (401) 863-2058
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