Four‐Level Overlapping Schwarz as Multigrid Coarse Solver for Incompressible Non‐Newtonian Flow in Complex Geometries

ABSTRACT For complex geometries, the coarse problem of geometric multigrid can be too large to be solved by a direct solver. Here, we report on the use of domain decomposition applied to the multigrid coarse problem. Additive overlapping Schwarz methods are domain decomposition methods for the iterative solution of partial differential equations whose numerical and parallel scalability can be improved by the addition of coarse levels. A successful coarse space for such methods, inspired by iterative substructuring, is the generalized Dryja–Smith–Widlund (GDSW) space. A monolithic two‐level overlapping Schwarz preconditioner based on a GDSW coarse space has been introduced for the solution of saddle‐point problems arising from incompressible fluid problems, and has subsequently been extended to a three‐level method. In the present work, for the first time, we consider a monolithic four‐level overlapping Schwarz preconditioner, obtained by applying the two‐level monolithic GDSW construction recursively three times, so that the second‐ and third‐level coarse problems are themselves treated by overlapping Schwarz and only the smallest fourth‐level coarse problem is solved by a sparse direct method. The preconditioner is implemented in the FROSch (Fast and Robust Overlapping Schwarz) library, part of the Trilinos package ShyLU, and is coupled to the FEATFLOW library through a dedicated scalable interface that makes FROSch available both as a preconditioner for the full saddle‐point system and as a coarse solver inside the FEATFLOW geometric multigrid method. Numerical results are presented for a three‐dimensional incompressible stationary Stokes problem with a Carreau‐type non‐Newtonian viscosity model posed on the complex geometry of an extrusion die, on up to 4000 MPI ranks, comparing the four‐level preconditioner with its two‐level and three‐level counterparts in both roles. This work is part of the StroemungsRaum project, funded by the German Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR, formerly BMBF) as part of the SCALEXA program on new methods and technologies for exascale computing.