Numerical computation of constant mean curvature surfaces using finite   elements
  This paper presents a method for computing two-dimensional constant mean curvature surfaces. The method in question uses the variational aspect of the problem to implement an efficient algorithm. In principle it is a flow like method in that it is linked to the gradient flow for the area functional, which gives reliable convergence properties. In the background a preconditioned conjugate gradient method works, that gives the speed of a direct elliptic multigrid method. 
Jan Metzger