Multi-level preconditioner for solving the Navier-Stokes equations in hemodynamics applications

We present a multi-level algorithm to approximate the inverse of the fluid block in a Navier-Stokes saddle-point matrix where the coarse level is defined as a restriction of the degrees of freedom to those of lower order finite elements. A one-level scheme involving P1 and P2 finite elements is studied in details and several transfer operators are compared by means of two reference problems. Numerical results show that restriction and prolongation operators based on L2 projection lead to faster GMRES convergence of the fluid part, for all the examined combinations of mesh size, time step and Reynolds number.