The WYD method in large eigenvalue problems

The advantages of a direct superposition of the Ritz vector in dynamic response analysis (developed by Wilson, Yuan, and Dickens in 1982 and termed the WYD method) are that: no iteration is involved; the method is at least four times faster than the subspace iteration method; and fewer Ritz vectors are necessary for the mode superposition of dynamic response analysis than exact eigenvectors are used. The major purpose of this paper is to illustrate that the WYD method can also be used as a general approximate algorithm to calculate eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The WYD and Lanczos algorithms are very similar and a formula that relates the two is given in this paper. Although the exact algebraic value of only a single eigenvector of a multi‐eigenvalue can be calculated using either the WYD or Lanczos methods, an artificial round‐off is presented that can be used to solve the eigenvalue problem. A method of estimating the error introduced by the WYD method is also developed. A dynamic substructuring technique, based on the WYD method, and which assumes that the connectivities on the interfaces among the substructures need not be considered is also presented.