Comparative study of conjugate gradient algorithms performance on the example of steady-state axisymmetric heat transfer problem

Abstract The finite element method (FEM) is one of the most frequently used numerical methods for finding the approximate discrete point solution of partial differential equations (PDE). In this method, linear or nonlinear systems of equations, comprised after numerical discretization, are solved to obtain the numerical solution of PDE. The conjugate gradient algorithms are efficient iterative solvers for the large sparse linear systems. In this paper the performance of different conjugate gradient algorithms: conjugate gradient algorithm (CG), biconjugate gradient algorithm (BICG), biconjugate gradient stabilized algorithm (BICGSTAB), conjugate gradient squared algorithm (CGS) and biconjugate gradient stabilized algorithm with l GMRES restarts (BICGSTAB(l)) is compared when solving the steady-state axisymmetric heat conduction problem. Different values of l parameter are studied. The engineering problem for which this comparison is made is the two-dimensional, axisymmetric heat conduction in a finned circular tube.