A multidomain spectral method for solving elliptic equations

We present a new solver for coupled nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs). The solver is based on pseudo-spectral collocation with domain decomposition and can handle one- to three-dimensional problems. It has three distinct features. First, the combined problem of solving the PDE, satisfying the boundary conditions, and matching between different subdomains is cast into one set of equations readily accessible to standard linear and nonlinear solvers. Second, touching as well as overlapping subdomains are supported; both rectangular blocks with Chebyshev basis functions as well as spherical shells with an expansion in spherical harmonics are implemented. Third, the code is very flexible: The domain decomposition as well as the distribution of collocation points in each domain can be chosen at run time, and the solver is easily adaptable to new PDEs. The code has been used to solve the equations of the initial value problem of general relativity and should be useful in many other problems. We compare the new method to finite difference codes and find it superior in both runtime and accuracy, at least for the smooth problems considered here.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figure

Randomized Local Model Order Reduction

In this paper we propose local approximation spaces for localized model order reduction procedures such as domain decomposition and multiscale methods. Those spaces are constructed from local solutions of the partial differential equation (PDE) with random boundary conditions, yield an approximation that converges provably at a nearly optimal rate, and can be generated at close to optimal computational complexity. In many localized model order reduction approaches like the generalized finite element method, static condensation procedures, and the multiscale finite element method local approximation spaces can be constructed by approximating the range of a suitably defined transfer operator that acts on the space of local solutions of the PDE. Optimal local approximation spaces that yield in general an exponentially convergent approximation are given by the left singular vectors of this transfer operator [I. Babu\v{s}ka and R. Lipton 2011, K. Smetana and A. T. Patera 2016]. However, the direct calculation of these singular vectors is computationally very expensive. In this paper, we propose an adaptive randomized algorithm based on methods from randomized linear algebra [N. Halko et al. 2011], which constructs a local reduced space approximating the range of the transfer operator and thus the optimal local approximation spaces. The adaptive algorithm relies on a probabilistic a posteriori error estimator for which we prove that it is both efficient and reliable with high probability. Several numerical experiments confirm the theoretical findings.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, 1 algorith

Domain Decomposition Method for Maxwell's Equations: Scattering off Periodic Structures

We present a domain decomposition approach for the computation of the electromagnetic field within periodic structures. We use a Schwarz method with transparent boundary conditions at the interfaces of the domains. Transparent boundary conditions are approximated by the perfectly matched layer method (PML). To cope with Wood anomalies appearing in periodic structures an adaptive strategy to determine optimal PML parameters is developed. We focus on the application to typical EUV lithography line masks. Light propagation within the multi-layer stack of the EUV mask is treated analytically. This results in a drastic reduction of the computational costs and allows for the simulation of next generation lithography masks on a standard personal computer.Comment: 24 page

Spectral methods for CFD

One of the objectives of these notes is to provide a basic introduction to spectral methods with a particular emphasis on applications to computational fluid dynamics. Another objective is to summarize some of the most important developments in spectral methods in the last two years. The fundamentals of spectral methods for simple problems will be covered in depth, and the essential elements of several fluid dynamical applications will be sketched

Constraint interface preconditioning for topology optimization problems

The discretization of constrained nonlinear optimization problems arising in the field of topology optimization yields algebraic systems which are challenging to solve in practice, due to pathological ill-conditioning, strong nonlinearity and size. In this work we propose a methodology which brings together existing fast algorithms, namely, interior-point for the optimization problem and a novel substructuring domain decomposition method for the ensuing large-scale linear systems. The main contribution is the choice of interface preconditioner which allows for the acceleration of the domain decomposition method, leading to performance independent of problem size.Comment: To be published in SIAM J. Sci. Com