p4est : Scalable Algorithms for Parallel Adaptive Mesh Refinement on Forests of Octrees

We present scalable algorithms for parallel adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening (AMR), partitioning, and 2:1 balancing on computational domains composed of multiple connected two-dimensional quadtrees or three-dimensional octrees, referred to as a forest of octrees. By distributing the union of octants from all octrees in parallel, we combine the high scalability proven previously for adaptive single-octree algorithms with the geometric flexibility that can be achieved by arbitrarily connected hexahedral macromeshes, in which each macroelement is the root of an adapted octree. A key concept of our approach is an encoding scheme of the interoctree connectivity that permits arbitrary relative orientations…