The term was introduced by Gabriel Kron in a series "Diakoptics — The Piecewise Solution of Large-Scale Systems" published in London, England by The Electrical Journal between June 7, 1957 and February 1959.
[1] According to Kron, "Diakoptics, or the Method of Tearing, is a combined theory of a pair of storehouses of information, namely equations+graph, or matrices+graph, associated with a given physical or economic system.
Diakoptics can be seen applied for instance in the text Solution of Large Networks by Matrix Methods.
[6] Diakoptics is peculiar as a decomposition method, in that it involves taking values on the "intersection layer" (the boundary between subsystems) into account.
[8] Bowden also described "a multilevel hierarchical version of the method, in which the subsystems are recursively torn into subsubsystems".
The journal Tensor (ISSN 0040-3504), published in Sapporo, Japan, placed Kron on its "honorary editorial board" in 1951.
Flurscheim and J.R. Mortlock of Associated Electrical Industries Ltd. [encouraged] the Power Systems Engineering Department of that company to investigate the applications of Diakoptics to the solution of practical load-flow problems and some difficult mechanical vibration problems; investigations which yielded results of considerable value.