IFSS: a MATLAB toolbox for modeling incompressible flow

Howard C Elman
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742
elman@cs.umd.edu
Alison Ramage, David J Silvester

We give an overview of the IFISS (Incompressible Flow Iterative Solution Software) Package, a graphical MATLAB package for the interactive numerical study of incompressible flow problems. It includes algorithms for discretization by mixed finite element methods and a posteriori error estimation of the computed solutions. The package can also be used as a computational laboratory for experimenting with state-of-the-art preconditioned iterative solvers for the discrete linear equation systems that arise in the modeling of incompressible flow. A unique feature of the package is its comprehensive nature; for each problem addressed, it enables the study of both discretization and iterative solution algorithms as well as the interaction between the two and the resulting effect on overall efficiency.