Robust isogeometric preconditioners for the Stokes system based on the Fast Diagonalization method

In this paper we propose a new class of preconditioners for the isogeometric discretization of the Stokes system. Their application involves the solution of a Sylvester-like equation, which can be done efficiently thanks to the Fast Diagonalization method. These preconditioners are robust with respect to both the spline degree and mesh size. By incorporating information on the geometry parametrization and equation coefficients, we maintain efficiency on non-trivial computational domains and for variable kinematic viscosity. In our numerical tests we compare to a standard approach, showing that the overall iterative solver based on our preconditioners is significantly faster.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figure

Optimal-order isogeometric collocation at Galerkin superconvergent points

In this paper we investigate numerically the order of convergence of an isogeometric collocation method that builds upon the least-squares collocation method presented in [1] and the variational collocation method presented in [2]. The focus is on smoothest B-splines/NURBS approximations, i.e, having global $C^{p-1}$ continuity for polynomial degree $p$. Within the framework of [2], we select as collocation points a subset of those considered in [1], which are related to the Galerkin superconvergence theory. With our choice, that features local symmetry of the collocation stencil, we improve the convergence behaviour with respect to [2], achieving optimal $L^2$-convergence for odd degree B-splines/NURBS approximations. The same optimal order of convergence is seen in [1], where, however a least-squares formulation is adopted. Further careful study is needed, since the robustness of the method and its mathematical foundation are still unclear.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures (35 pdf images

Space-time least-squares isogeometric method and efficient solver for parabolic problems

In this paper, we propose a space-time least-squares isogeometric method to solve parabolic evolution problems, well suited for high-degree smooth splines in the space-time domain. We focus on the linear solver and its computational efficiency: thanks to the proposed formulation and to the tensor-product construction of space-time splines, we can design a preconditioner whose application requires the solution of a Sylvester-like equation, which is performed efficiently by the fast diagonalization method. The preconditioner is robust w.r.t. spline degree and mesh size. The computational time required for its application, for a serial execution, is almost proportional to the number of degrees-of-freedom and independent of the polynomial degree. The proposed approach is also well-suited for parallelization.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure

A low-rank isogeometric solver based on Tucker tensors

We propose an isogeometric solver for Poisson problems that combines i) low-rank tensor techniques to approximate the unknown solution and the system matrix, as a sum of a few terms having Kronecker product structure, ii) a Truncated Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient solver to keep the rank of the iterates low, and iii) a novel low-rank preconditioner, based on the Fast Diagonalization method where the eigenvector multiplication is approximated by the Fast Fourier Transform. Although the proposed strategy is written in arbitrary dimension, we focus on the three-dimensional case and adopt the Tucker format for low-rank tensor representation, which is well suited in low dimension. We show in numerical tests that this choice guarantees significant memory saving compared to the full tensor representation. We also extend and test the proposed strategy to linear elasticity problems.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

A domain decomposition method for isogeometric multi-patch problems with inexact local solvers

In Isogeometric Analysis, the computational domain is often described as multi-patch, where each patch is given by a tensor product spline/NURBS parametrization. In this work we propose a FETI-like solver where local inexact solvers exploit the tensor product structure at the patch level. To this purpose, we extend to the isogeometric framework the so-called All-Floating variant of FETI, that allows us to use the Fast Diagonalization method at the patch level. We construct then a preconditioner for the whole system and prove its robustness with respect to the local mesh-size $h$ and patch-size $H$ (i.e., we have scalability). Our numerical tests confirm the theory and also show a favourable dependence of the computational cost of the method from the spline degree $p$.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

The virtual element method on image-based domain approximations

We analyze and validate the virtual element method combined with a projection approach similar to the one in [1, 2], to solve problems on two dimensional domains with curved boundaries approximated by polygonal domains obtained as the union of squared elements out of a uniform structured mesh, such as the one that naturally arise when the domain is issued from an image. We show, both theoretically and numerically, that resorting to the use of polygonal element allows to satisfy the assumptions required for the stability of the projection approach, thus allowing to fully exploit the potential of higher order methods, which makes the resulting approach an effective alternative to the use of the finite element method