A point interpolation meshless method based on radial basis functions

A point interpolation meshless method is proposed based on combining radial and polynomial basis functions. Involvement of radial basis functions overcomes possible singularity associated with the meshless methods based on only the polynomial basis. This non‐singularity is useful in constructing well‐performed shape functions. Furthermore, the interpolation function obtained passes through all scattered points in an influence domain and thus shape functions are of delta function property. This makes the implementation of essential boundary conditions much easier than the meshless methods based on the moving least‐squares approximation. In addition, the partial derivatives of shape functions are easily obtained, thus improving computational efficiency. Examples on curve/surface fittings and solid mechanics problems show that the accuracy and convergence rate of the present method is high. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A meshless local radial point collocation method for free vibration analysis of laminated composite plates

In this paper, a meshless local radial point collocation method based on multiquadric radial basis function is proposed to analyze the free vibration of laminated composite plates. This method approximates the governing equations based on first-order shear deformation theory using the nodes in the support domain of any data center. Natural frequencies of the laminated composite plates with various boundary conditions, side-to-thickness ratios, and material properties are computed by present method. The choice of shape parameter, effect of dimensionless sizes of the support domain on accuracy, convergence characteristics are studied by several numerical examples. The results are compared with available published results which demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of present method.     

The static and free vibration analysis of a nonhomogeneous moderately thick plate using the meshless local radial point interpolation method

A meshless local radial point interpolation method (LRPIM) for the bending and free vibration analysis of a nonhomogeneous moderately thick plate is presented in this paper. It uses a radial basis function coupled with a quadratic polynomial basis function as a trail function and a quartic spline function as a test function of the weighted residual method. The shape functions obtained in the trail function have the Kronecker delta function property, and the essential boundary conditions can be easily imposed. The present method is a true meshless method as it does not need any grids and all integrals can be easily evaluated over regularly shaped domains and their boundaries. In computational procedures, variations of material properties in the considered domain are modelled by adopting proper material parameters at Gauss points in integrations. Examples show that results obtained by the presented method are found to agree well with the existing solutions in the literature and with the results obtained by the finite element method, and the presented method has a number of advantages, such as high efficiency, quite good accuracy and easy implementation.     

Time‐domain vector potential technique for the meshless radial point interpolation method

A time‐domain meshless algorithm based on vector potentials is introduced for the analysis of transient electromagnetic fields. The proposed numerical algorithm is a modification of the radial point interpolation method, where radial basis functions are used for local interpolation of the vector potentials and their derivatives. In the proposed implementation, solving the second‐order vector potential wave equation intrinsically enforces the divergence‐free property of the electric and magnetic fields. Furthermore, the computational effort associated with the generation of a dual node distribution (as required for solving the first‐order Maxwell's equations) is avoided. The proposed method is validated with several examples of 2D waveguides and filters, and the convergence is empirically demonstrated in terms of node density or size of local support domains. It is further shown that inhomogeneous node distributions can provide increased convergence rates, that is, the same accuracy with smaller number of nodes compared with a solution for homogeneous node distribution. A comparison of the magnetic vector potential technique with conventional radial point interpolation method is performed, highlighting the superiority of the divergence‐free formulation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

预报振动噪声的径向基点插值无网格与无限元耦合方法

为克服传统的有限元耦合无限元方法中的单元匹配问题,研究了径向基点插值法和无限元法的耦合规律,提出了一种预报无限域结构振动噪声的径向基点插值无网格与可变阶无限声波包络单元耦合方法,推导了预报声压的计算公式。为提高声场预报精度和满足声波在无限域的自由衰减,结构外部无限声场分为使用无网格表示的近场和可变阶声波包络单元离散的远场。在该耦合方法中,通过在近场与远场之间的交界面上配置虚拟网格来构造具有连续性的声压形函数,确保了声压的连续与一致性。采用数值仿真和试验对该耦合方法进行了验证,结果表明该耦合方法拥有无网格法的高精度和可变阶声波包络单元法满足声波自由衰减的特点,具有良好的精度和收敛性,可用于实际噪声预报。     

A 3D upper bound limit analysis using radial point interpolation meshless method and second‐order cone programming

This paper presents a 3D formulation for quasi‐kinematic limit analysis, which is based on a radial point interpolation meshless method and numerical optimization. The velocity field is interpolated using radial point interpolation shape functions, and the resulting optimization problem is cast as a standard second‐order cone programming problem. Because the essential boundary conditions can be only guaranteed at the position of the nodes when using radial point interpolation, the results obtained with the proposed approach are not rigorous upper bound solutions. This paper aims to improve the computing efficiency of 3D upper bound limit analysis and large problems, with tens of thousands of nodes, can be solved efficiently. Five numerical examples are given to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach with the von Mises yield criterion: an internally pressurized cylinder; a cantilever beam; a double‐notched tensile specimen; and strip, square and rectangular footings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A radial point interpolation meshless method extended with an elastic rate-independent continuum damage model for concrete materials

An advanced discretization meshless technique, the radial point interpolation method (RPIM), is applied to analyze concrete structures using an elastic continuum damage constitutive model. Here, the theoretical basis of the material model and the computational procedure are fully presented. The plane stress meshless formulation is extended to a rate-independent damage criterion, where both compressive and tensile damage evolutions are established based on a Helmholtz free energy function. Within the return-mapping damage algorithm, the required variable fields, such as the damage variables and the displacement field, are obtained. This study uses the Newton–Raphson nonlinear solution algorithm to achieve the nonlinear damage solution. The verification, where the performance is assessed, of the proposed model is demonstrated by relevant numerical examples available in the literature.     

An improved localized radial basis function meshless method for computational aeroacoustics

An improved localized radial basis function collocation method is developed for computational aeroacoustics, which is based on an improved localized RBF expansion using Hardy multiquadrics for the desired unknowns. The method approximates the spatial derivatives by RBF interpolation using a small set of nodes in the neighborhood of any data center. This approach yields the generation of a small interpolation matrix for each data center and hence advancing solutions in time will be of comparatively lower cost. An upwind implementation is further introduced to contain the hyperbolic property of the governing equations by using flux vector splitting method. The 4–6 low dispersion and low dissipation Runge–Kutta optimized scheme is used for temporal integration. Corresponding boundary conditions are enforced exactly at a discrete set of boundary nodes. The performances of the present method are demonstrated through their application to a variety of benchmark problems and are compared with the exact solutions.     

A collocation meshless method based on local optimal point interpolation

This paper deals with the use of the local optimal point interpolating (LOPI) formula in solving partial differential equations (PDEs) with a collocation method. LOPI is an interpolating formula constructed by localization of optimal point interpolation formulas that reproduces polynomials and verifies the delta Kronecker property. This scheme results in a truly meshless method that produces high quality output and accurate solutions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solving potential problems by a boundary-type meshless method—the boundary point method based on BIE

In this paper, a novel boundary-type meshless method, the boundary point method (BPM), is developed via an approximation procedure based on the idea of Young et al. [Novel meshless method for solving the potential problems with arbitrary domain. J Comput Phys 2005;209:290–321] and the boundary integral equations (BIE) for solving two- and three-dimensional potential problems. In the BPM, the boundary of the solution domain is discretized by unequally spaced boundary nodes, with each node having a territory (the point is usually located at the centre of the territory) where the field variables are defined. The BPM has both the merits of the boundary element method (BEM) and the method of fundamental solution (MFS), both of these methods use fundamental solutions which are the two-point functions determined by the source and the observation points only. In addition to the singular properties, the fundamental solutions have the feature that the greater the distance between the two points, the smaller the values of the fundamental solutions will be. In particular, the greater the distances, the smaller the variations of the fundamental solutions. By making use of this feature, most of the off-diagonal coefficients of the system matrix will be computed by one-point scheme in the BPM, which is similar to the one in the MFS. In the BPM, the ‘moving elements’ are introduced by organizing the relevant adjacent nodes tentatively, so that the source points are placed on the real boundary of the solution domain where the resulting weak singular, singular and hypersingular kernel functions of the diagonal coefficients of the system matrix can be evaluated readily by well-developed techniques that are available in the BEM. Thus difficulties encountered in the MFS are removed because of the coincidence of the two points. When the observation point is close to the source point, the integrals of kernel functions can be evaluated by Gauss quadrature over territories.In this paper, the singular and hypersingular equations in the indirect and direct formulations of the BPM are presented corresponding to the relevant BIE for potential problems, where the indirect formulations can be considered as a special form of the MFS. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy of solutions of the proposed BPM for potential problems with mixed boundary conditions where good agreements with exact solutions are observed.     

Fracture analysis using parametric meshless Galerkin method

The recently introduced parametric meshless Galerkin method (PMGM) uses meshless shape functions which are mapped from a parametric space. The PMGM improves the efficiency of the meshless methods via the capability of using the meshless shape functions of an existing elements library and no necessity to construct all meshless shape functions in the running time. In this paper, the application of the PMGM to calculate the crack‐tip stress intensity factors (SIFs) is studied. Some modifications are performed on the original PMGM to eliminate the restrictions arisen from the compulsory use of the whole of the parametric data. In doing so, some of the mapped nodes are inactivated due to their confliction with the problem geometry or extra node patterns and some of the Gaussian cells are also replaced with new ones. Numerical examples show a computational time saving of more than 20% as well as accurate obtained SIFs.     

A dual reciprocity hybrid radial boundary node method based on radial point interpolation method

A novel truly meshless method called dual reciprocity hybrid radial boundary node method (DHRBNM) is developed in present, which combines dual reciprocity method (DRM), hybrid boundary node method (HBNM) and radial point interpolation method (RPIM). Compared to the dual reciprocity hybrid boundary node method (DHBNM), RPIM is exploited to replace the moving least square in DHRBNM, unlike HBNM, the shape function obtained by present method has the delta function property, so the boundary conditions can be applied directly and easily, and computational expense is greatly reduced. In order to get the interpolation property of different basis function in DRM, different approximate functions are applied in DRM for comparison, and the accuracy and efficiency of them are discussed. Besides, RPIM is also exploited in DRM, which can greatly improve the accuracy of present method. Moreover, the accuracy of DRM is greatly influenced by the nodes number and their location, hence, some examples are investigated to show that the internal node number is equal to boundary node number and they are arranged parallel to the high gradient direction of the problem are the best choice. Finally, DHBNM is applied for comparison and some selected numerical examples are given to illustrate that the present method is efficient and less computational expense than that of DHBNM.     

Geometric nonlinear analysis of plates and cylindrical shells via a linearly conforming radial point interpolation method

In this paper, the linearly conforming radial point interpolation method is extended for geometric nonlinear analysis of plates and cylindrical shells. The Sander’s nonlinear shell theory is utilized and the arc-length technique is implemented in conjunction with the modified Newton–Raphson method to solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations. The radial and polynomial basis functions are employed to construct the shape functions with Delta function property using a set of arbitrarily distributed nodes in local support domains. Besides the conventional nodal integration, a stabilized conforming nodal integration is applied to restore the conformability and to improve the accuracy of solutions. Small rotations and deformations, as well as finite strains, are assumed for the present formulation. Comparisons of present solutions are made with the results reported in the literature and good agreements are obtained. The numerical examples have demonstrated that the present approach, combined with arc-length method, is quite effective in tracing the load-deflection paths of snap-through and snap-back phenomena in shell problems.     

Dispersion analysis of the meshfree radial point interpolation method for the Helmholtz equation

When numerical methods such as the finite element method (FEM) are used to solve the Helmholtz equation, the solutions suffer from the so‐called pollution effect which leads to inaccurate results, especially for high wave numbers. The main reason for this is that the wave number of the numerical solution disagrees with the wave number of the exact solution, which is known as dispersion. In order to obtain admissible results a very high element resolution is necessary and increased computational time and memory capacity are the consequences. In this paper a meshfree method, namely the radial point interpolation method (RPIM), is investigated with respect to the pollution effect in the 2D‐case. It is shown that this methodology is able to reduce the dispersion significantly. Two modifications of the RPIM, namely one with polynomial reproduction and another one with a problem‐dependent sine/cosine basis, are also described and tested. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the advantages of the method compared with the FEM. For identical discretizations, the RPIM yields considerably better results than the FEM. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A regularized least-squares radial point collocation method (RLS-RPCM) for adaptive analysis

This paper presents a stabilized meshfree method formulated based on the strong formulation and local approximation using radial basis functions (RBFs). The purpose of this paper is two folds. First, a regularization procedure is developed for stabilizing the solution of the radial point collocation method (RPCM). Second, an adaptive scheme using the stabilized RPCM and residual based error indicator is established. It has been shown in this paper that the features of the meshfree strong-form method can facilitated an easier implementation of adaptive analysis. A new error indicator based on the residual is devised and used in this work. As shown in the numerical examples, the new error indicator can reflect the quality of the local approximation and the global accuracy of the solution. A number of examples have been presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present method for adaptive analysis.     

A local Heaviside weighted meshless method for two-dimensional solids using radial basis functions

 A meshless method is developed for the stress analysis of two-dimensional solids, based on a local weighted residual method with the Heaviside step function as the weighting function over a local subdomain. Trial functions are constructed using radial basis functions (RBF). The present method is a truly meshless method based only on a number of randomly located nodes. No domain integration is needed, no element matrix assembly is required and no special treatment is needed to impose the essential boundary conditions. Effects of the sizes of local subdomain and interpolation domain on the performance of the present method are investigated. The behaviour of shape parameters of multiquadrics (MQ) has been systematically studied. Example problems in elastostatics are presented and compared with closed-form solutions and show that the proposed method is highly accurate and possesses no numerical difficulties. Received: 10 November 2002 / Accepted: 5 March 2003     

Fracture propagation using the radial point interpolation method

This work presents a crack path prediction algorithm combined with the radial point interpolation method (RPIM), a meshless method. To allow easier implementation in existing structural analysis software, this algorithm is numerically compatible with finite element method (FEM) formulations. The proposed RPIM formulation uses the triangular elements of a FEM mesh as the background integration grid, allowing also to combine both formulations more easily. Thus, with the developed methodology, the RPIM can be integrated directly in a FEM software or use the same CAD tools to build the discretization meshes. Because the RPIM shape functions possess the delta Kronecker property, all the numerical techniques available for the FEM can be applied to enforce the natural and essential boundary conditions. The developed algorithm uses the maximum tangential stress criterion to determine the crack propagation direction, and the crack paths obtained with it corresponded well to previous research.     

A hybrid radial boundary node method based on radial basis point interpolation

The hybrid boundary node method (HBNM) retains the meshless attribute of the moving least squares (MLS) approximation and the reduced dimensionality advantages of the boundary element method. However, the HBNM inherits the deficiency of the MLS approximation, in which shape functions lack the delta function property. Thus in the HBNM, boundary conditions are implemented after they are transformed into their approximations on the boundary nodes with the MLS scheme.This paper combines the hybrid displacement variational formulation and the radial basis point interpolation to develop a direct boundary-type meshless method, the hybrid radial boundary node method (HRBNM) for two-dimensional potential problems. The HRBNM is truly meshless, i.e. absolutely no elements are required either for interpolation or for integration. The radial basis point interpolation is used to construct shape functions with delta function property. So unlike the HBNM, the HRBNM is a direct numerical method in which the basic unknown quantity is the real solution of nodal variables, and boundary conditions can be applied directly and easily, which leads to greater computational precision. Some selected numerical tests illustrate the efficiency of the method proposed.     

On the convergence analysis,stability, and implementation of meshless local radial point interpolation on a class of three‐dimensional wave equations

In this article, the meshless local radial point interpolation method is applied to analyze three space dimensional wave equations of the form subject to given initial and Dirichlet boundary conditions. The main difficulty of the great number of methods in full 3‐D problems is the large computational costs. In meshless local radial point interpolation method, it does not require any background integration cells, so that all integrations are carried out locally over small quadrature domains of regular shapes such as circles or squares in two dimensions and spheres or cubes in three dimensions. The point interpolation method with the help of radial basis functions is proposed to construct shape functions that have Kronecker delta function property. A weak formulation with the Heaviside step function converts the set of governing equations into local integral equations on local subdomains. A two‐step time discretization method is employed to evaluate the time derivatives. This suggests Crank‐Nicolson technique to be applied on the right hand side of the equation. The convergence analysis and stability of the method are fully discussed. Three illustrative examples are presented, and satisfactory agreements are achieved. It is shown theoretically that the proposed method is unconditionally stable for the second example whereas it is not for the first and third ones. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of meshless local radial point interpolation (MLRPI) on a nonlinear partial integro-differential equation arising in population dynamics

In this paper the meshless local radial point interpolation (MLRPI) method is applied to simulate a nonlinear partial integro-differential equation arising in population dynamics. This PDE is a competition model in which similar individuals are competing for the same resources. It is a kind of reaction–diffusion equation with integral term corresponding to nonlocal consumption of resources. In MLRPI method, it does not require any background integration cells so that all integrations are carried out locally over small quadrature domains of regular shapes, such as circles or squares in two dimensions and spheres or cubes in three dimensions. The point interpolation method is proposed to construct shape functions using the radial basis functions. A one-step time discretization method is employed to approximate the time derivative. To treat the nonlinearity, a simple predictor–corrector scheme is performed. Also the integral term, which is a kind of convolution, is treated by the cubic spline interpolation. The numerical studies on sensitivity analysis and convergence analysis show that our approach is stable. Finally, two numerical examples are presented showing the behavior of the solution and the efficiency of the proposed method.