Domain Decomposition Methods for Nonconforming Finite Element Discretizations

Book excerpt: Domain decomposition refers to numerical methods for obtaining solutions of scientific and engineering problems by combining solutions to problems posed on physical subdomains, or, more generally, by combining solutions to appropriately constructed subproblems. It has been a subject of intense interest recently because of its suitability for implementation on high performance computer architectures. It is well known that the nonconforming finite elements are widely used in and effective for the solving of partial differential equations derived from mechanics and engineering, because they have fewer degrees of freedom, simpler basis functions and better convergence behavior. But, there has been no extensive study of domain decomposition methods with nonconforming finite elements which lack the global continuity. Therefore, a rather systematic investigation on domain decomposition methods with nonconforming elements is of great significance and this is what the present book achieves. The theoretical breakthrough is the establishment of a series of essential estimates, especially the extension theorems for nonconforming elements, which play key roles in domain decomposition analysis. There are also many originalities in the design of the domain decomposition algorithms for the nonconforming finite element discretizations, according to the features of the nonconforming elements. The existing domain decomposition methods developed in the conforming finite element discrete case can be revised properly and extended to the nonconforming finite element discrete case correspondingly. These algorithms, nonoverlap or overlap, are as efficient as their counterparts in the conforming cases, and even easier in implementation.