The cascadic multigrid method for elliptic problems

Summary. The paper deals with certain adaptive multilevel methods at the confluence of nested multigrid methods and iterative methods based on the cascade principle of [10]. From the multigrid point of view, no correction cycles are needed; from the cascade principle view, a basic iteration method without any preconditioner is used at successive refinement levels. For a prescribed error tolerance on the final level, more iterations must be spent on coarser grids in order to allow for less iterations on finer grids. A first candidate of such a cascadic multigrid method was the recently suggested cascadic conjugate gradient method of [9], in short CCG method, whichused the CG method as basic iteration method on each level. In [18] it has been proven, that the CCG method is accurate with optimal complexity for elliptic problems in 2D and quasi-uniform triangulations. The present paper simplifies that theory and extends it to more general basic iteration methods like the traditional multigrid smoothers. Moreover, an adaptive control strategy for the number of iterations on successive refinement levels for possibly highly non-uniform grids is worked out on the basis of a posteriori estimates. Numerical tests confirm the efficiency and robustness of the cascadic multigrid method. Received November 12, 1994 / Revised version received October 12, 1995     

A cascadic multigrid algorithm for semilinear elliptic problems

Summary. We propose a cascadic multigrid algorithm for a semilinear elliptic problem. The nonlinear equations arising from linear finite element discretizations are solved by Newton's method. Given an approximate solution on the coarsest grid on each finer grid we perform exactly one Newton step taking the approximate solution from the previous grid as initial guess. The Newton systems are solved iteratively by an appropriate smoothing method. We prove that the algorithm yields an approximate solution within the discretization error on the finest grid provided that the start approximation is sufficiently accurate and that the initial grid size is sufficiently small. Moreover, we show that the method has multigrid complexity. Received February 12, 1998 / Revised version received July 22, 1999 / Published online June 8, 2000     

Schwarz alternating and iterative refinement methods for mixed formulations of elliptic problems,part II: Convergence theory

Summary In this paper we discuss bounds for the convergence rates of several domain decomposition algorithms to solve symmetric, indefinite linear systems arising from mixed finite element discretizations of elliptic problems. The algorithms include Schwarz methods and iterative refinement methods on locally refined grids. The implementation of Schwarz and iterative refinement algorithms have been discussed in part I. A discussion on the stability of mixed discretizations on locally refined grids is included and quantiative estimates for the convergence rates of some iterative refinement algorithms are also derived.Department of Mathematics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3036. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant NSF-CCR-8903003, while the author was a graduate student at New York University, and in part by NSF Grant ASC 9003002, while the author was a Visiting, Assistant Researcher at UCLA.     

The analysis of multigrid algorithms for cell centered finite difference methods

In this paper, we examine multigrid algorithms for cell centered finite difference approximations of second order elliptic boundary value problems. The cell centered application gives rise to one of the simplest non-variational multigrid algorithms. We shall provide an analysis which guarantees that the W-cycle and variable V-cycle multigrid algorithms converge with a rate of iterative convergence which can be bounded independently of the number of multilevel spaces. In contrast, the natural variational multigrid algorithm converges much more slowly.     

Incomplete block-matrix factorization iterative methods for convection-diffusion problems

Standard Galerkin finite element methods or finite difference methods for singular perturbation problems lead to strongly unsymmetric matrices, which furthermore are in general notM-matrices. Accordingly, preconditioned iterative methods such as preconditioned (generalized) conjugate gradient methods, which have turned out to be very successful for symmetric and positive definite problems, can fail to converge or require an excessive number of iterations for singular perturbation problems.This is not so much due to the asymmetry, as it is to the fact that the spectrum can have both eigenvalues with positive and negative real parts, or eigenvalues with arbitrary small positive real parts and nonnegligible imaginary parts. This will be the case for a standard Galerkin method, unless the meshparameterh is chosen excessively small. There exist other discretization methods, however, for which the corresponding bilinear form is coercive, whence its finite element matrix has only eigenvalues with positive real parts; in fact, the real parts are positive uniformly in the singular perturbation parameter.In the present paper we examine the streamline diffusion finite element method in this respect. It is found that incomplete block-matrix factorization methods, both on classical form and on an inverse-free (vectorizable) form, coupled with a general least squares conjugate gradient method, can work exceptionally well on this type of problem. The number of iterations is sometimes significantly smaller than for the corresponding almost symmetric problem where the velocity field is close to zero or the singular perturbation parameter =1.The 2 ^nd author's research was sponsored by Control Data Corporation through its PACER fellowship program.The 3 ^rd author's research was supported by the Netherlands organization for scientific research (NWO).On leave from the Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Science, 1090 Sofia, P.O. Box 373, Bulgaria.     

Multilevel Schwarz methods for elliptic problems with discontinuous coefficients in three dimensions

Summary. Multilevel Schwarz methods are developed for a conforming finite element approximation of second order elliptic problems. We focus on problems in three dimensions with possibly large jumps in the coefficients across the interface separating the subregions. We establish a condition number estimate for the iterative operator, which is independent of the coefficients, and grows at most as the square of the number of levels. We also characterize a class of distributions of the coefficients, called quasi-monotone, for which the weighted -projection is stable and for which we can use the standard piecewise linear functions as a coarse space. In this case, we obtain optimal methods, i.e. bounds which are independent of the number of levels and subregions. We also design and analyze multilevel methods with new coarse spaces given by simple explicit formulas. We consider nonuniform meshes and conclude by an analysis of multilevel iterative substructuring methods. Received April 6, 1994 / Revised version received December 7, 1994     

Additive Schwarz methods for the Crouzeix-Raviart mortar finite element for elliptic problems with discontinuous coefficients

In this paper, we propose two variants of the additive Schwarz method for the approximation of second order elliptic boundary value problems with discontinuous coefficients, on nonmatching grids using the lowest order Crouzeix-Raviart element for the discretization in each subdomain. The overall discretization is based on the mortar technique for coupling nonmatching grids. The convergence behavior of the proposed methods is similar to that of their closely related methods for conforming elements. The condition number bound for the preconditioned systems is independent of the jumps of the coefficient, and depend linearly on the ratio between the subdomain size and the mesh size. The performance of the methods is illustrated by some numerical results. This work has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the special funds for major state basic research projects (973) under 2005CB321701 and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of China (No.10471144) This work has been supported in part by the Bergen Center for Computational Science, University of Bergen     

Multilevel iterative methods for mixed finite element discretizations of elliptic problems

Summary For solving second order elliptic problems discretized on a sequence of nested mixed finite element spaces nearly optimal iterative methods are proposed. The methods are within the general framework of the product (multiplicative) scheme for operators in a Hilbert space, proposed recently by Bramble, Pasciak, Wang, and Xu [5,6,26,27] and make use of certain multilevel decomposition of the corresponding spaces for the flux variable.     

Overlapping Schwarz preconditioners for spectral element methods in nonstandard domains and heterogeneous media

Overlapping Schwarz preconditioners are constructed and numerically studied for Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre (GLL) spectral element discretizations of heterogeneous elliptic problems on nonstandard domains defined by Gordon-Hall transfinite mappings. The results of several test problems in the plane show that the proposed preconditioners retain the good convergence properties of overlapping Schwarz preconditioners for standard affine GLL spectral elements, i.e. their convergence rate is independent of the number of subdomains, of the spectral degree in the case of generous overlap and of the discontinuity jumps in the coefficients of the elliptic operator, while in the case of small overlap, the convergence rate depends on the inverse of the overlap size.     

Galerkin-wavelet methods for two-point boundary value problems

Summary Anti-derivatives of wavelets are used for the numerical solution of differential equations. Optimal error estimates are obtained in the applications to two-point boundary value problems of second order. The orthogonal property of the wavelets is used to construct efficient iterative methods for the solution of the resultant linear algebraic systems. Numerical examples are given.This work was supported by National Science Foundation     

Nonstandard coarse spaces and Schwarz methods for elliptic problems with discontinuous coefficients using non-conforming elements

Summary. Two-level domain decomposition methods are developed for a simple nonconforming approximation of second order elliptic problems. A bound is established for the condition number of these iterative methods, that grows only logarithmically with the number of degrees of freedom in each subregion. This bound holds for two and three dimensions and is independent of jumps in the value of the coefficients and number of subregions. We introduce face coarse spaces, and isomorphisms to map between conforming and nonconforming spaces. ReceivedMarch 1, 1995 / Revised version received January 16, 1996     

Time-harmonic solution for acousto-elastic interaction with controllability and spectral elements

The classical way of solving the time-harmonic linear acousto-elastic wave problem is to discretize the equations with finite elements or finite differences. This approach leads to large-scale indefinite complex-valued linear systems. For these kinds of systems, it is difficult to construct efficient iterative solution methods. That is why we use an alternative approach and solve the time-harmonic problem by controlling the solution of the corresponding time dependent wave equation.In this paper, we use an unsymmetric formulation, where fluid-structure interaction is modeled as a coupling between pressure and displacement. The coupled problem is discretized in space domain with spectral elements and in time domain with central finite differences. After discretization, exact controllability problem is reformulated as a least-squares problem, which is solved by the conjugate gradient method.     

Overlapping Schwarz methods on unstructured meshes using non-matching coarse grids

Summary. We consider two level overlapping Schwarz domain decomposition methods for solving the finite element problems that arise from discretizations of elliptic problems on general unstructured meshes in two and three dimensions. Standard finite element interpolation from the coarse to the fine grid may be used. Our theory requires no assumption on the substructures that constitute the whole domain, so the substructures can be of arbitrary shape and of different size. The global coarse mesh is allowed to be non-nested to the fine grid on which the discrete problem is to be solved, and neither the coarse mesh nor the fine mesh need be quasi-uniform. In addition, the domains defined by the fine and coarse grid need not be identical. The one important constraint is that the closure of the coarse grid must cover any portion of the fine grid boundary for which Neumann boundary conditions are given. In this general setting, our algorithms have the same optimal convergence rate as the usual two level overlapping domain decomposition methods on structured meshes. The condition number of the preconditioned system depends only on the (possibly small) overlap of the substructures and the size of the coarse grid, but is independent of the sizes of the subdomains. Received March 23, 1994 / Revised version received June 2, 1995     

Efficient geometric multigrid implementation for triangular grids

This paper deals with a stencil-based implementation of a geometric multigrid method on semi-structured triangular grids (triangulations obtained by regular refinement of an irregular coarse triangulation) for linear finite element methods. An efficient and elegant procedure to construct these stencils using a reference stencil associated to a canonical hexagon is proposed. Local Fourier Analysis (LFA) is applied to obtain asymptotic convergence estimates. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the efficiency of this geometric multigrid algorithm, which is based on a three-color smoother.     

Robust multigrid method for the planar linear elasticity problems

We consider the solution of the system of equations that arise from the higher order conforming finite element (Scott–Vogelius element) discretizations of the boundary value problems associated with the differential operator −ρ ² Δ − κ ²∇div, where ρ and κ are nonzero parameters. Robust multigrid method is constructed, i.e., the convergence rate of multigrid method is optimal with respect to the mesh size, the number of levels, and weights on the two terms in the aforementioned differential operator.

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Schwarz alternating and iterative refinement methods for mixed formulations of elliptic problems,part I: Algorithms and numerical results

Summary We describe sequential and parallel algorithms based on the Schwarz alternating method for the solution of mixed finite element discretizations of elliptic problems using the Raviart-Thomas finite element spaces. These lead to symmetric indefinite linear systems and the algorithms have some similarities with the traditional block Gauss-Seidel or block Jacobi methods with overlapping blocks. The indefiniteness requires special treatment. The sub-blocks used in the algorithm correspond to problems on a coarse grid and some overlapping subdomains and is based on a similar partition used in an algorithm of Dryja and Widlund for standard elliptic problems. If there is sufficient overlap between the subdomains, the algorithm converges with a rate independent of the mesh size, the number of subdomains and discontinuities of the coefficients. Extensions of the above algorithms to the case of local grid refinement is also described. Convergence theory for these algorithms will be presented in a subsequent paper.This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant NSF-CCR-8903003, while the author was a graduate student at New York University, and in part by the Army Research Office under Grant DAAL 03-91-G-0150, while the author was a Visiting Assistant Researcher at UCLA     

The hierarchical basis multigrid method for convection-diffusion equations

Summary We make a theoretical study of the application of a standard hierarchical basis multigrid iteration to the convection diffusion equation, discretized using an upwind finite element discretizations. We show behavior that in some respects is similar to the symmetric positive definite case, but in other respects is markedly different. In particular, we find the rate of convergence depends significantly on parameters which measure the strength of the upwinding, and the size of the convection term. Numerical calculations illustrating some of these effects are given.The work of this author was supported by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-89J-1440.The work of this author was supported by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-89J-1440.     

Multilevel Schwarz methods

Summary We consider the solution of the algebraic system of equations which result from the discretization of second order elliptic equations. A class of multilevel algorithms are studied using the additive Schwarz framework. We establish that the condition number of the iteration operators are bounded independent of mesh sizes and the number of levels. This is an improvement on Dryja and Widlund's result on a multilevel additive Schwarz algorithm, as well as Bramble, Pasciak and Xu's result on the BPX algorithm. Some multiplicative variants of the multilevel methods are also considered. We establish that the energy norms of the corresponding iteration operators are bounded by a constant less than one, which is independent of the number of levels. For a proper ordering, the iteration operators correspond to the error propagation operators of certain V-cycle multigrid methods, using Gauss-Seidel and damped Jacobi methods as smoothers, respectively.This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grants NSF-CCR-8903003 at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University and NSF-ASC-8958544 at Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland.     

A domain decomposition discretization of parabolic problems

In recent years, domain decomposition methods have attracted much attention due to their successful application to many elliptic and parabolic problems. Domain decomposition methods treat problems based on a domain substructuring, which is attractive for parallel computation, due to the independence among the subdomains. In principle, domain decomposition methods may be applied to the system resulting from a standard discretization of the parabolic problems or, directly, be carried out through a discretization of parabolic problems. In this paper, a direct domain decomposition method is introduced to discretize the parabolic problems. The stability and convergence of this algorithm are analyzed. This work was supported in part by Polish Sciences Foundation under grant 2P03A00524. This work was supported in part by the US Department of Energy under Contracts DE-FG02-92ER25127 and by the Director, Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research, U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.     

Numerical analysis of a linearised fluid-structure interaction problem

Summary. This paper describes the numerical analysis of a time dependent linearised fluid structure interaction problems involving a very viscous fluid and an elastic shell in small displacements. For simplicity, all changes of geometry are neglected. A single variational formulation is proposed for the whole problem and generic discretisation strategies are introduced independently on the fluid and on the structure. More precisely, the space approximation of the fluid problem is realized by standard mixed finite elements, the shell is approximated by DKT finite elements, and time derivatives are approximated either by midpoint rules or by backward difference formula. Using fundamental energy estimates on the continuous problem written in a proper functional space, on its discrete equivalent, and on an associated error evolution equation, we can prove that the proposed variational problem is well posed, and that its approximation in space and time converges with optimal order to the continuous solution. Received May 14, 1999 / Revised version revised October 14, 1999 / Published online July 12, 2000