Dear all,

I am working on a finite-elements/finite-volumes code, whose distributed solver is based on petsc. For FE, it relies on Lagrange multipliers for the imposition of various boundary conditions or interactions (simple dirichlet, contact, ...). This results in saddle point problems:

[S Ct][x]=[f]
[C 0 ][y] [g]

As discussed in this mailing list ("Saddle point problem with nested matrix and a relatively small number of Lagrange multipliers"), the fieldsplit/PC_COMPOSITE_SCHUR approach involves (2 + 'number of iterations of the KSP for the Schur complement') KSPSolve(S, Sp). I would like to try the formula given by Ainsworth in [1] to solve this problem:

x = (Sp)^(-1) * fp
y = Rt * (f - S*x)

where:
Sp= Ct*C + Qt*S*Q
Q = I - P
P = R * C
R = Ct * (C*Ct)^(-1)

My input matrices (S and C) are MPIAIJ matrices. I create a shell matrix for Sp (because it involves (C*Ct)^(-1) so I think it may be a bad idea to compute it explicitly...) with the MatMult operator to use it in a KSPSolve. The C matrix and g vector are scaled so that the condition number of Sp is similar to the one of S.

It works, but my main problem is that because Sp is a shell matrix, as far as I understand, I deprive myself of all the petsc preconditioners... I tried to use S as a preconditioning matrix, but it's not good: With a GAMG preconditioner, my iteration number is about 4 times higher than in a "debug" version where I compute Sp explicitly as a MPIAIJ matrix and use it as preconditioning matrix.

Is there a way to use the petsc preconditioners for shell matrices or at least to define a shell preconditioner that internally calls the petsc preconditioners?

In the end I would like to have something like GAMG(Ct*C + Qt*S*Q) as a preconditioner (here Q is a shell matrix), or something like Qt*GAMG(S)*Q (which from matlab experimentation could be a good preconditioner).

Many thanks,
Olivier

[1]: Ainsworth, M. (2001). Essential boundary conditions and multi-point constraints in finite element analysis. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 190(48), 6323-6339.

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