Optimizations for quadrature representations of finite element tensors through automated code generation

We examine aspects of the computation of finite element matrices and vectors that are made possible by automated code generation. Given a variational form in a syntax that resembles standard mathematical notation, the low-level computer code for building finite element tensors, typically matrices, vectors and scalars, can be generated automatically via a form compiler. In particular, the generation of code for computing finite element matrices using a quadrature approach is addressed. For quadrature representations, a number of optimization strategies which are made possible by automated code generation are presented. The relative performance of two different automatically generated representations of finite element matrices is examined, with a particular emphasis on complicated variational forms. It is shown that approaches which perform best for simple forms are not tractable for more complicated problems in terms of run-time performance, the time required to generate the code or the size of the generated code. The approach and optimizations elaborated here are effective for a range of variational forms.