A domain decomposition technique applied to the solution of thecoupled electro-mechanical problem

A domain decomposition approach for the solution of the coupled electro-mechanical problem in dynamics is proposed. The finite element analysis of a coupled electro-mechanical system is frequently found, for example, in the modelling and design of microsystems and may lead to a burdensome nonlinear problem solution, particularly in the dynamic case. Two versions of the algorithm are proposed: the first one, called single-level decomposition, exploits the natural partition of the analysis domain given by the two physics to be solved; the second one, called two-level decomposition, adds a further subdivision of each physics into subdomains. The multilevel domain decomposition strategy here proposed is shown to accurately predict the response of microsystems subjected to electro-mechanical coupling and to allow for a significant reduction in the computational burden.