Performance of Zero-Level Fill-In Preconditioning Techniques for Iterative Solutions with Geotechnical Applications

Biot's symmetric indefinite linear systems of equations are commonly encountered in finite-element computations of geotechnical problems. The development of efficient solution methods for Biot's linear systems of equations is of practical importance to geotechnical software packages. In conjunction with the Krylov-subspace iterative method symmetric quasi-minimal residual (SQMR), some zero-level fill-in incomplete factorization preconditioning techniques including a symmetric successive overrelaxation (SSOR) type method and several zero-level incomplete LU [ILU(0)] methods are investigated and compared for Biot's symmetric indefinite linear systems of equations. Numerical experiments are carried out based on three practical geotechnical problems. Numerical results indicate that ILU(0) preconditioners are classical and generally efficient when adequately stabilized. However, the tunnel problem provides a counterexample demonstrating that ILU(0) preconditioners cannot be fully stabilized by preliminary scaling, reordering, making use of perturbed matrices, or dynamically selecting pivots. Compared with the investigated ILU(0) preconditioners, the recently proposed modified SSOR preconditioner is less efficient but is robust over the range of problems studied. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.