Enhanced multi-level block ILU preconditioning strategies for general sparse linear systems

AbstractThis paper introduces several strategies to deal with pivot blocks in multi-level block incomplete LU factorization (BILUM) preconditioning techniques. These techniques are aimed at increasing the robustness and controlling the amount of fill-ins of BILUM for solving large sparse linear systems when large-size blocks are used to form block-independent set. Techniques proposed in this paper include double-dropping strategies, approximate singular-value decomposition, variable size blocks and use of an arrowhead block submatrix. We point out the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies and discuss their efficient implementations. Numerical experiments are conducted to show the usefulness of the new techniques in dealing with hard-to-solve problems arising from computational fluid dynamics. In addition, we discuss the relation between multi-level ILU preconditioning methods and algebraic multi-level methods

Multilevel Variable-Block Schur-Complement-Based Preconditioning for the Implicit Solution of the Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations Using Unstructured Grids

Implicit methods based on the Newton’s rootfinding algorithm are receiving an increasing attention for the solution of complex Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications due to their potential to converge in a very small number of iterations. This approach requires fast convergence acceleration techniques in order to compete with other conventional solvers, such as those based on artificial dissipation or upwind schemes, in terms of CPU time. In this chapter, we describe a multilevel variable-block Schur-complement-based preconditioning for the implicit solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations using unstructured grids on distributed-memory parallel computers. The proposed solver detects automatically exact or approximate dense structures in the linear system arising from the discretization, and exploits this information to enhance the robustness and improve the scalability of the block factorization. A complete study of the numerical and parallel performance of the solver is presented for the analysis of turbulent Navier-Stokes equations on a suite of three-dimensional test cases