Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 November 2010
This study is mainly dedicated to the development and analysis ofnon-overlapping domain decomposition methods for solving continuous-pressurefinite element formulations of the Stokes problem. These methods have thefollowing special features. By keeping the equations and unknowns unchanged atthe cross points, that is, points shared by more than two subdomains, one caninterpret them as iterative solvers of the actual discrete problem directlyissued from the finite element scheme. In this way, the good stabilityproperties of continuous-pressure mixed finite element approximations of theStokes system are preserved. Estimates ensuring that each iteration can beperformed in a stable way as well as a proof of the convergence of theiterative process provide a theoretical background for the application of therelated solving procedure. Finally some numerical experiments are given todemonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, and particularly to compare itsefficiency with an adaptation to this framework of a standard FETI-DP method.