Constitutive and equation of state models using object-oriented programming methods

Large-scale simulations of solid dynamics problems require sophisticated computer hardware, employing specialized or unique features to enhance performance. The developer of computational mechanics codes is not only faced with the task of programming the necessary analysis algorithms, but also of ensuring that the available system capabilities are properly utilized to obtain the highest possible performance. Developing and maintaining the code for a number of computers, ranging from single processor serial workstations to massively parallel vectorized supercomputers, becomes a very difficult, potentially intractable problem. In this paper, we present an approach that seeks to minimize this problem by applying object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts to the development of the RHALE++ hydrodynamics/solid mechanics code that is written in the C++ language. In particular, we use the OOP paradigm to facilitate code development, maintenance, and portability of constitutive and equation of state models.