Massively parallel finite element analysis of coupled, incompressible flows: A benchmark computation of baroclinic annulus waves

Coupled, three‐dimensional, time‐dependent, incompressible flows in a differentially heated, rotating annulus are simulated using a parallel implementation of the Galerkin finite element method on the Connection Machine 5 (CM‐5) supercomputer. The development of baroclinic annulus waves is computed and found to be consistent with previous experimental reseults. The implementation of a repeated spectral bisection element‐partitioning technique significantly increases the computation speed over a strategy which randomly maps elements to processors, yielding sustained calculation rates of 8.1 GFLOPS on 512 processors of the CM‐5.