Coarsening Strategies for Unstructured Multigrid Techniques with Application to Anisotropic Problems

Over the years, multigrid has been demonstrated as an efficient technique for solving inviscid flow problems. However, for viscous flows, convergence rates often degrade. This is generally due to the required use of stretched meshes (i.e., the aspect ratio AR = Δy/Δx < < 1) in order to capture the boundary layer near the body. Usual techniques for generating a sequence of grids that produce proper convergence rates on isotropic meshes are not adequate for stretched meshes. This work focuses on the solution of Laplace's equation, discretized through a Galerkin finite-element formulation on unstructured stretched triangular meshes. A coarsening strategy is proposed and results are discussed

Multilevel Solvers for Unstructured Surface Meshes

Parameterization of unstructured surface meshes is of fundamental importance in many applications of digital geometry processing. Such parameterization approaches give rise to large and exceedingly ill-conditioned systems which are difficult or impossible to solve without the use of sophisticated multilevel preconditioning strategies. Since the underlying meshes are very fine to begin with, such multilevel preconditioners require mesh coarsening to build an appropriate hierarchy. In this paper we consider several strategies for the construction of hierarchies using ideas from mesh simplification algorithms used in the computer graphics literature. We introduce two novel hierarchy construction schemes and demonstrate their superior performance when used in conjunction with a multigrid preconditioner

HP-multigrid as smoother algorithm for higher order discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of advection dominated flows. Part I. Multilevel Analysis

The hp-Multigrid as Smoother algorithm (hp-MGS) for the solution of higher order accurate space-(time) discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of advection dominated flows is presented. This algorithm combines p-multigrid with h-multigrid at all p-levels, where the h-multigrid acts as smoother in the p-multigrid. The performance of the hp-MGS algorithm is further improved using semi-coarsening in combination with a new semi-implicit Runge-Kutta method as smoother. A detailed multilevel analysis of the hp-MGS algorithm is presented to obtain more insight into the theoretical performance of the algorithm. As model problem a fourth order accurate space-time discontinuous Galerkin discretization of the advection-diffusion equation is considered. The multilevel analysis shows that the hp-MGS algorithm has excellent convergence rates, both for low and high cell Reynolds numbers and on highly stretched meshes

HP-multigrid as smoother algorithm for higher order discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of advection dominated flows. Part II. Optimization of the Runge-Kutta smoother

Using a detailed multilevel analysis of the complete hp-Multigrid as Smoother algorithm accurate predictions are obtained of the spectral radius and operator norms of the multigrid error transformation operator. This multilevel analysis is used to optimize the coefficients in the semi-implicit Runge-Kutta smoother, such that the spectral radius of the multigrid error transformation operator is minimal under properly chosen constraints. The Runge-Kutta coefficients for a wide range of cell Reynolds numbers and a detailed analysis of the performance of the hp-MGS algorithm are presented. In addition, the computational complexity of the hp-MGS algorithm is investigated. The hp-MGS algorithm is tested on a fourth order accurate space-time discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretization of the advection-diffusion equation for a number of model problems, which include thin boundary layers and highly stretched meshes, and a non-constant advection velocity. For all test cases excellent multigrid convergence is obtained

Spatial adaptation procedures on tetrahedral meshes for unsteady aerodynamic flow calculations

Spatial adaptation procedures for the accurate and efficient solution of steady and unsteady inviscid flow problems are described. The adaptation procedures were developed and implemented within a three-dimensional, unstructured-grid, upwind-type Euler code. These procedures involve mesh enrichment and mesh coarsening to either add points in high gradient regions of the flow or remove points where they are not needed, respectively, to produce solutions of high spatial accuracy at minimal computational cost. A detailed description of the enrichment and coarsening procedures are presented and comparisons with experimental data for an ONERA M6 wing and an exact solution for a shock-tube problem are presented to provide an assessment of the accuracy and efficiency of the capability. Steady and unsteady results, obtained using spatial adaptation procedures, are shown to be of high spatial accuracy, primarily in that discontinuities such as shock waves are captured very sharply

Multigrid Strategies for Viscous Flow Solvers on Anisotropic Unstructured Meshes

Unstructured multigrid techniques for relieving the stiffness associated with high-Reynolds number viscous flow simulations on extremely stretched grids are investigated. One approach consists of employing a semi-coarsening or directional-coarsening technique, based on the directions of strong coupling within the mesh, in order to construct more optimal coarse grid levels. An alternate approach is developed which employs directional implicit smoothing with regular fully coarsened multigrid levels. The directional implicit smoothing is obtained by constructing implicit lines in the unstructured mesh based on the directions of strong coupling. Both approaches yield large increases in convergence rates over the traditional explicit full-coarsening multigrid algorithm. However, maximum benefits are achieved by combining the two approaches in a coupled manner into a single algorithm. An order of magnitude increase in convergence rate over the traditional explicit full-coarsening algorithm is demonstrated, and convergence rates for high-Reynolds number viscous flows which are independent of the grid aspect ratio are obtained. Further acceleration is provided by incorporating low-Mach-number preconditioning techniques, and a Newton-GMRES strategy which employs the multigrid scheme as a preconditioner. The compounding effects of these various techniques on speed of convergence is documented through several example test cases

h-multigrid agglomeration based solution strategies for discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of incompressible flow problems

In this work we exploit agglomeration based $h$-multigrid preconditioners to speed-up the iterative solution of discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of the Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations. As a distinctive feature $h$-coarsened mesh sequences are generated by recursive agglomeration of a fine grid, admitting arbitrarily unstructured grids of complex domains, and agglomeration based discontinuous Galerkin discretizations are employed to deal with agglomerated elements of coarse levels. Both the expense of building coarse grid operators and the performance of the resulting multigrid iteration are investigated. For the sake of efficiency coarse grid operators are inherited through element-by-element $L^2$ projections, avoiding the cost of numerical integration over agglomerated elements. Specific care is devoted to the projection of viscous terms discretized by means of the BR2 dG method. We demonstrate that enforcing the correct amount of stabilization on coarse grids levels is mandatory for achieving uniform convergence with respect to the number of levels. The numerical solution of steady and unsteady, linear and non-linear problems is considered tackling challenging 2D test cases and 3D real life computations on parallel architectures. Significant execution time gains are documented.Comment: 78 pages, 7 figure