A geometric multigrid Poisson solver for domains containing solid inclusions Original Research Article

A Cartesian grid method for the fast solution of the Poisson equation in three-dimensional domains with embedded solid inclusions is presented and its performance analyzed. The efficiency of the method, which assume Neumann conditions at the immersed boundaries, is comparable to that of a multigrid method for regular domains. The method is light in terms of memory usage, and easily adaptable to parallel architectures. Tests with random and ordered arrays of solid inclusions, including spheres and ellipsoids, demonstrate smooth convergence of the residual for small separation between the inclusion surfaces. This feature is important, for instance, in simulations of nearly-touching finite-size particles. The implementation of the method, “MG-Inc”, is available online.