Domain decomposition interface preconditioners for fourth-order elliptic problems (Q1181534)

The paper studies an issue of the interface operators arising from solving the biharmonic equation on a rectangle which is decomposed into two rectangles. Using Fourier analysis, the authors obtain the exact eigen-decomposition of the interface Schur complement and this allows one to read off precise information about the interface operators, including an estimate of their condition numbers which is shown to be \(O(h^{-3})\), and the decay rate of their elements. It makes it possible to construct an analog of the preconditioners of \textit{G. H. Golub} and \textit{D. Mayers} [Computing methods in applied sciences and engineering VI, Proc. 6th. Int. Symp. Versailles 1983, 3-14 (1984; Zbl 0564.65067)] and of the first author [SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 24, 382-390 (1987; Zbl 0625.65100)] for fourth- order problems. A simple recipe of converting interface preconditioners for second-order problems to interface preconditioners for fourth-order problems is given.