Preconditioned Locally Harmonic Residual Method for Computing Interior Eigenpairs of Certain Classes of Hermitian Matrices

We propose a Preconditioned Locally Harmonic Residual (PLHR) method for computing several interior eigenpairs of a generalized Hermitian eigenvalue problem, without traditional spectral transformations, matrix factorizations, or inversions. PLHR is based on a short-term recurrence, easily extended to a block form, computing eigenpairs simultaneously. PLHR can take advantage of Hermitian positive definite preconditioning, e.g., based on an approximate inverse of an absolute value of a shifted matrix, introduced in [SISC, 35 (2013), pp. A696-A718]. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that PLHR is efficient and robust for certain classes of large-scale interior eigenvalue problems, involving Laplacian and Hamiltonian operators, especially if memory requirements are tight

Preconditioning harmonic unsteady potential flow calculations

This paper considers finite element discretisations of the Helmholtz equation and its generalisation arising from harmonic acoustics perturbations to a non-uniform steady potential flow. A novel elliptic, positive definite preconditioner, with a multigrid implementation, is used to accelerate the iterative convergence of Krylov subspace solvers. Both theory and numerical results show that for a model 1D Helmholtz test problem the preconditioner clusters the discrete system's eigenvalues and lowers its condition number to a level independent of grid resolution. For the 2D Helmholtz equation, grid independent convergence is achieved using a QMR Krylov solver, significantly outperforming the popular SSOR preconditioner. Impressive results are also presented on more complex domains, including an axisymmetric aircraft engine inlet with non-stagnant mean flow and modal boundary conditions

Some Preconditioning Techniques for Saddle Point Problems

Saddle point problems arise frequently in many applications in science and engineering, including constrained optimization, mixed finite element formulations of partial differential equations, circuit analysis, and so forth. Indeed the formulation of most problems with constraints gives rise to saddle point systems. This paper provides a concise overview of iterative approaches for the solution of such systems which are of particular importance in the context of large scale computation. In particular we describe some of the most useful preconditioning techniques for Krylov subspace solvers applied to saddle point problems, including block and constrained preconditioners.\ud \ud The work of Michele Benzi was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant DMS-0511336