Load balancing issues in the prepartitioning method

An original approach to the partitioning of 3D meshes (typically for the fi nite element method) is presented. Our technique applies on sub-domains def ined by their polyhedrical boundary. It relies on the meshing of interfaces between subdomains before meshing the domain itself. Since this idea basically trades smoothness, small-size, and regularity of the interfaces for;unbalance, we describe a fast, efficient, linear-time ev aluation algorithm that corrects this default. Its use is experienced with industrial benchmarks, and compared with other heuristic schemes.