Excessive Memory Usage of the ELLPACK Sparse Matrix Storage Scheme throughout the Finite Element Computations

Abstract

Sparse matrices are occasionally encountered during solution of various problems by means of numerical methods, particularly the finite element method. ELLPACK sparse matrix storage scheme, one of the most widely used methods due to its implementation ease, is investigated in this study. The scheme uses excessive memory due to its definition. For the conventional finite element method, where the node elements are used, the excessive memory caused by redundant entries in the ELLPACK sparse matrix storage scheme becomes negligible for large scale problems. On the other hand, our analyses show that the redundancy is still considerable for the occasions where facet or edge elements have to be used.