On the estimation of the optimum accelerator for sor applied to finite element methods

A simple procedure is described which provides a numerical estimate of the optimum accelerator for the successive overrelaxation (SOR) process when applied to finite element methods. The procedure has been applied successfully in a number of controlled experiments, and the results of three of these are presented in detail. Comparison with finite difference methods shows that it may be possible to predict a sharp estimate of the optimum accelerator before computation begins.