Locally-synchronous, iterative solver for Fourier-based homogenization

We use the algebraic orthogonality of rotation-free and divergence-free fields in the Fourier space to derive the solution of a class of linear homogenization problems as the solution of a large linear system. The effective constitutive tensor constitutes only a small part of the solution vector. Therefore, we propose to use a synchronous and local iterative method that is capable to efficiently compute only a single component of the solution vector. If the convergence of the iterative solver is ensured, i.e., the system matrix is positive definite and diagonally dominant, it outperforms standard direct and iterative solvers that compute the complete solution. It has been found that for larger phase contrasts in the homogenization problem, the convergence is lost, and one needs to resort to other linear system solvers. Therefore, we discuss the linear system’s properties and the advantages as well as drawbacks of the presented homogenization approach.