MatResLib: A reusable, object-oriented material response library

Large-scale simulations of solid dynamics problems often require sophisticated models for reproducing material response. The developer of computational mechanics codes is faced with the task of programming the necessary material response algorithms, and also of ensuring that the available system capabilities are properly utilized to obtain the highest possible performance. Often a number of different programs need the same material models. Also, these programs are expected to perform efficiently on a wide variety of platforms. Thus, developing and maintaining a library of material models becomes difficult and time-consuming. In this paper, we describe a set of reusable libraries, written in C++[sup 1], that seeks to minimize these difficulties. These libraries are collectively named MatResLib (for Material Response Library). We have pursued code reusability from four aspects. First, the implementation of new material models is facilitated by reusing code which defines an abstract base class for the type of model being implemented. This approach uses the inheritance mechanism of C++. Second, the library has been designed for reuse of the source code on different computing platforms, including the IBM PC, UNIX workstations, the CRAY-YWP, and the nCUBE 2, Intel/860, and Intel Paragon massively parallel computers. Third, the source code files aremore » reusable among different continuum codes. Fourth, individual model classes are being reused in combination to develop more complex models.« less