An algebraic theory for primal and dual substructuring methods by constraints (Q557935)

Finite element tearing and interconnecting (FETI) and balancing domain decomposition (BDD) are two widely methods for the solution of large sparse systems of linear algebraic equations arising from discretization of elliptic boundary value problems. The two most advanced variants of these methods are the FETI-DP (FETI dual-primal) and the BDDC (BDD based on constraints) methods, whose formulation does not require any information beyond the algebraic systems of equations in a substructure form. The authors investigate the connections between the FETI-DP and BDDC methods. They identify the necessary algebraic properties of the transfer operators and show that in several important cases these properties determine the transfer operators uniquely. They formulate the FETI-DP and BDDC methods in a common framework as methods based on general constraints between the substructures and provide a simplified algebraic convergence theory. Identical algebraic condition number bounds for both methods are given in terms of a single inequality, and, under natural additional asumptions, it is proved that the eigenvalues of the preconditioned problems are the jumps between substructures. Computational experiments confirm the theory.