Polytechnic University of Catalonia

About: Polytechnic University of Catalonia is a education organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Finite element method & Population. The organization has 16006 authors who have published 45325 publications receiving 949306 citations. The organization is also known as: UPC - BarcelonaTECH & Technical University of Catalonia.

The Great Colorado Flood of September 2013

Abstract: During the second week of September 2013, a seasonally uncharacteristic weather pattern stalled over the Rocky Mountain Front Range region of northern Colorado bringing with it copious amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. This feed of moisture was funneled toward the east-facing mountain slopes through a series of mesoscale circulation features, resulting in several days of unusually widespread heavy rainfall over steep mountainous terrain. Catastrophic flooding ensued within several Front Range river systems that washed away highways, destroyed towns, isolated communities, necessitated days of airborne evacuations, and resulted in eight fatalities. The impacts from heavy rainfall and flooding were felt over a broad region of northern Colorado leading to 18 counties being designated as federal disaster areas and resulting in damages exceeding $2 billion (U.S. dollars). This study explores the meteorological and hydrological ingredients...

NURBS-enhanced finite element method (NEFEM)

Abstract: The development of NURBS-Enhanced Finite Element Method (NEFEM) is revisited. This technique allows a seamless integration of the CAD boundary representation of the domain and the finite element method (FEM). The importance of the geometrical model in finite element simulations is addressed and the benefits and potential of NEFEM are discussed and compared with respect to other curved finite element techniques.

Numerical Model for a Nineteenth-Century Hydrometric Module

Abstract: The Cequia of Manresa is a 26-km open channel constructed in the fourteenth century that conveys water from the Llobregat River to the city of Manresa using an elevation difference of 10.4 ...

XLME interpolants, a seamless bridge between XFEM and enriched meshless methods

Abstract: In this paper, we develop a method based on local maximum entropy shape functions together with enrichment functions used in partition of unity methods to discretize problems in linear elastic fracture mechanics. We obtain improved accuracy relative to the standard extended finite element method at a comparable computational cost. In addition, we keep the advantages of the LME shape functions, such as smoothness and non-negativity. We show numerically that optimal convergence (same as in FEM) for energy norm and stress intensity factors can be obtained through the use of geometric (fixed area) enrichment with no special treatment of the nodes near the crack such as blending or shifting.

An Extension of the StarSs Programming Model for Platforms with Multiple GPUs

Abstract: While general-purpose homogeneous multi-core architectures are becoming ubiquitous, there are clear indications that, for a number of important applications, a better performance/power ratio can be attained using specialized hardware accelerators. These accelerators require specific SDK or programming languages which are not always easy to program. Thus, the impact of the new programming paradigms on the programmer's productivity will determine their success in the high-performance computing arena. In this paper we present GPU Superscalar (GPUSs), an extension of the Star Superscalar programming model that targets the parallelization of applications on platforms consisting of a general-purpose processor connected with multiple graphics processors. GPUSs deals with architecture heterogeneity and separate memory address spaces, while preserving simplicity and portability. Preliminary experimental results for a well-known operation in numerical linear algebra illustrate the correct adaptation of the runtime to a multi-GPU system, attaining notable performance results.