Computationally efficient multi-time-step method for partitioned time integration of highly nonlinear structural dynamics

An efficient and accurate method for solving large-scale problems in non-linear structural dynamics is presented. The method uses dual-Schur domain decomposition to divide a large finite element mesh into a number of smaller subdomains, which are solved independently using a suitable mesh-size and time-step to capture the local spatial and temporal scales of the problem. Continuity of the solution between subdomains is enforced by Lagrange multipliers. It is shown that the proposed method is stable, accurate and computationally more efficient than using a uniform time-step for the entire mesh. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate and corroborate these properties.