[petsc-users] Convergence on Axisymmetric Poisson matrix

[Lionel CHENG]

Hello everyone, 

I have some questions regarding a linear system that I am solving in my plasma simulations. We have in this case a strongly non-symmetric matrix due to the cylindrical coordinates for which the Laplacian cell is given by Fig. 2 for two kinds of triangles. The different unstructured grids have from 300 000 nodes to 7 000 000 nodes. 

To my understanding, CG should not work properly on this matrix but BiCGStab(1) should. When using SOR preconditioner it is indeed the case: -ksp_type cg -pc_type sor yields solutions in 10 to 20 times more iterations than -ksp_type bcgs -pc_type sor. 

However, when switching to -ksp_type cg -pc_type gamg the convergence is great and even slightly better than -ksp_type bcgs. I do not understand how CG is able to make the system converge when using GAMG although the matrix is non-symmetric ? Is GAMG able to somehow symmetrize the system? I have the impression that when using -pc_type gamg the Krylov solver is actually the Pre-relaxation and post-relaxation of the initial grid, is that right? 

For GAMG since the matrix is non-symmetric -mg_levels_pc_type sor for and -mg_levels_ksp_type richardson have been used and yields better results than the original chebychev solver. 

Sincerely yours, 

Lionel Cheng 
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