Abstract

The kind of problems currently addressed by scientists are constantly increasing in complexity, always requiring more computing power and storage, both for input data as well as results, in addition to specialized software specific for the different branches of science. There is also frequently a need to distribute geographically, both computation and data in a safe and efficient manner. Traditionally, scientific computation had been performed in centers having supercomputers or clusters, but in many cases the computational capacity of such centers are insuficient for the requirements placed by such computations. The Portal of Damage is a finite element scientific application based on the new called Theory of Concentrated Damage, that combines fracture mechanics, continuous damage theory and the concept of plastic hinge. It can be accessed over the Web using a regular web browser (MS Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) to simulate the behavior of reinforced concrete framed structures { typically buildings { under earthquakes or others exceptional overloads conditions with the goal of determining the structural response when collapse or structural failure occurs. The theory of concentrated damage is based on the assumption that all inelastic phenomena can be lumped at special locations called plastic or inelastic hinges. Therefore a frame member is considered as the assemblage of an elastic beam-column and two inelastic hinges at the ends of member. This theory is obtained by the introduction of a variable, called damage, which measures the crack density in the element. The damage ranges from zero to one, where zero represents elements with no damage (no cracking) while a value of one represents a totally cracked state. It must be point out that through the portal only two dimensional (2D) reinforced concrete framed structures can be analyzed. The first version developed allows for the calculations to be performed on a computational cluster located at the Universidad de Los Andes National Center for Scientific Computations (CeCalCULA). Because of the very active fault of Boconó, the Andes region is a highly seismic zone, thus there is a lot of demand for this application in the region. This means that the current cluster version of the Portal of Damage can not adequately fulfill the user's requirements, causing long job queues, especially during training courses of the tool. Due to this limitation and the expected heavy use of the portal, rises the need to migrate the portal so that it can use the computational resources available on the Grid, given that CeCalCULA is already a partner in some grid projects, like Grid Venezuela and the EELA-2 project, and for the EELA project. This allows for the utilization of computational resources in Venezuelan universities, as well as in Latin America and Europe. This document describes the experience gained in CeCalCULA through on going migration of the Portal of Damage application. It describes it's architecture, gives a brief description of the software, explain in general terms the run of some preliminary tests sent to the grid, shows the first results obtained and compares run times. Finally, it describes future plans for forthcoming tests and the development of the Portal of Damage to three dimensions (3D) on Grid.

Artículo Presentado en: Proccedings 3 Ibergrid Conference (2008) pp. 124