Development of a Finite Element Domain Decomposition Analysis with Improved Characteristics

This paper describes development of an improved computational algorithm based on finite element domain decomposition technique for a large scale structural analysis. We compared computational algorithms corresponding to the original FETI method and the presently improved FETI approach with regard to convergence. In the original FETI method, Lagrange multipliers were introduced to enforce compatibility at the interface DOF’s. The improved FETI algorithm uses local Lagrange multipliers with an augmented Lagrangian formulation (ALF) as penalty formulation of the problem for computational robustness and efficiency. The present mathematical algorithm is relatively simple and leads to improved convergence of numerical computation. Thus, this algorithm will be attractive for FETI domain decomposition method. For validation of the present approach, we compared its numerical results with those obtained by the original FETI method