• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.287-298
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• 2001

Analysis of nonlinear behavior of prestressed concrete frame structures on PC is a time-consuming computing job if the problem size increase to a certain degree. Cluster system has emerged as one of promising computing environments due to its good extendibility, portability, and cost-effectiveness, comparing it with high-end work-stations or servers. In this paper, a parallel nonlinear analysis procedure of prestressed concrete frame structure is presented using cluster computing. Cluster system is configured with readily available pentium III class PCs under Win98 or Linux and fast ethernet. Parallel computing algorithms on element-wise processing parts including the calculation of stiffness matrix, element stresses and determination of material states, check of material failure and calculation of unbalanced loads are developed using MPL. Validity of the method is discussed through typical numerical examples. For the case of 4 node system, maximum speedup is 3.15 and 3.74 for Win98 and Linux, respectively. Important issues for the efficient use of cluster computing system based un PCs and ethernet are addressed.