Publications

Publications / Conference

Domain decomposition solvers for PDEs : some basics, practical tools, and new developments

Dohrmann, Clark R.

The first part of this talk provides a basic introduction to the building blocks of domain decomposition solvers. Specific details are given for both the classical overlapping Schwarz (OS) algorithm and a recent iterative substructuring (IS) approach called balancing domain decomposition by constraints (BDDC). A more recent hybrid OS-IS approach is also described. The success of domain decomposition solvers depends critically on the coarse space. Similarities and differences between the coarse spaces for OS and BDDC approaches are discussed, along with how they can be obtained from discrete harmonic extensions. Connections are also made between coarse spaces and multiscale modeling approaches from computational mechanics. As a specific example, details are provided on constructing coarse spaces for incompressible fluid problems. The next part of the talk deals with a variety of implementation details for domain decomposition solvers. These include mesh partitioning options, local and global solver options, reducing the coarse space dimension, dealing with constraint equations, residual weighting to accelerate the convergence of OS methods, and recycling of Krylov spaces to efficiently solve problems with multiple right hand sides. Some potential bottlenecks and remedies for domain decomposition solvers are also discussed. The final part of the talk concerns some recent theoretical advances, new algorithms, and open questions in the analysis of domain decomposition solvers. The focus will be primarily on the work of the speaker and his colleagues on elasticity, fluid mechanics, problems in H(curl), and the analysis of subdomains with irregular boundaries.