Algebraic domain decomposition solver for linear elasticity. (Q1775174): Difference between revisions

The paper is concerned with the development and analysis of a robust black-box algebraic solver suitable for problems of structural mechanics discretized on unstructured meshes. The method studied is an overlapping Schwarz domain decomposition with a coarse space given by smoothed aggregations. For scalar elliptic problems, such a method was proposed and analyzed by \textit{M. Brezina} and \textit{P. Vanek} [Computing 63, No. 3, 233--263 (1999; Zbl 0951.65133)]. The author adapts the method by employing a coarse space that is created using zero-energy modes. The main result of the paper is an abstract convergence theory that leads to the proof of an optimal convergence rate independent of the \(H^1\)-coercivity (Korn's constant) and the essential boundary conditions. In a certain sense, the convergence bounds given are also independent of the computational domain. The rather weak assumptions of the abstract theory are verified for linear elasticity problems discretized on quasiuniform P1 finite element meshes. The convergence results are illustrated by a series of numerical experiments, in which also numerical stability and robustness of the method with respect to the character of the mesh are discussed. The numerical performance of a non-preconditioned conjugate gradient method is compared with the results obtained when using the algorithm studied in the paper as a preconditioner. Morevover, computational complexity of the algorithm is studied and estimates of the amount of floating point operations are given for both serial and parallel implementations.