Smoothers for Matrix-Free Algebraic Multigrid Preconditioning of High-Order Finite Elements
We investigate smoothers for use in matrix-free algebraic multigrid (AMG) preconditioning of high-order finite element problems. These AMG preconditioners are matrix-free in the sense that they are built from a related low-order refined finite element problem whose system matrix can be much more rapidly assembled than the high-order problem. Our proposed smoother, which we call distributive relaxation, is more robust to the anisotropy present in many low-order refined meshes which feature a clustering of nodes near the boundaries between high-order finite elements. For solving the low-order refined problem, we show that this new distributive relaxation smoother possesses significantly improved performance compared to more traditional smoothers.