A p-multigrid method enhanced with an ILUT smoother and its comparison to h-multigrid methods within Isogeometric Analysis

Abstract: Over the years, Isogeometric Analysis has shown to be a successful alternative to the Finite Element Method (FEM). However, solving the resulting linear systems of equations efficiently remains a challenging task. In this paper, we consider a p-multigrid method, in which coarsening is applied in the approximation order p instead of the mesh width h. Since the use of classical smoothers (e.g. Gauss-Seidel) results in a p-multigrid method with deteriorating performance for higher values of p, the use of an ILUT smoother is investigated. Numerical results and a spectral analysis indicate that the resulting p-multigrid method exhibits convergence rates independent of h and p. In particular, we compare both coarsening strategies (e.g. coarsening in h or p) adopting both smoothers for a variety of two and threedimensional benchmarks.