Perturbation of Eigenvalues of Preconditioned Navier--Stokes Operators

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of algebraic eigenvalue problems associated with matrices arising from linearization and discretization of the steady-state Navier--Stokes equations. In particular, for several choices of preconditioners applied to the system of discrete equations we derive upper bounds on perturbations of eigenvalues as functions of the viscosity and discretization mesh size. The bounds suggest that the sensitivity of the eigenvalues is at worst linear in the inverse of the viscosity and quadratic in the inverse of the mesh size and that scaling can be used to decrease the sensitivity in some cases. Experimental results supplement these results and confirm the relatively mild dependence on viscosity. They also indicate a dependence on the mesh size of magnitude smaller than the analysis suggests.