csat Computational Science and Techniques KU 80_485_6_CE_SIMKUS Article Parallel computing for the finite element method in MATLAB Šimkus Aurimas saurimas@hotmail.com ∗ Siauliai University Turskienė Sigita sigita@fm.su.lt Siauliai University Corresponding author. 1 2 214 221 18 09 2013 22 07 2013 21 08 2013 2013 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

In this research, parallel computing capabilities of MATLAB and the capabilities for the finite element method were analyzed. A program for solving a heat transfer problem by the finite element method was implemented. Three different parallel algorithms using CPU and GPU for solving steady state and transient heat transfer problems were proposed and implemented. A maximal speedup of around 2.3 times for steady state and 2 times for transient problem solving time was achieved by using a quad-core CPU.