A new multilevel algebraic preconditioner for the diffusion equation in heterogeneous media

We develop and analyze a new multilevel preconditioner for algebraic systems arising from the finite volume discretization of 3D diffusion–reaction problems in highly heterogeneous media. The system matrices are assumed to be symmetric M-matrices. The preconditioner is based on a special coarsening algorithm and the inner Chebyshev iterative procedure. The condition number of the preconditioned matrix does not depend on the coefficients in the diffusion operator. Numerical experiments confirm theoretical results and reveal the competitiveness of the new preconditioner with respect to a well-known algebraic multigrid preconditioner. Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.