Thin plate spline Galerkin scheme for numerically solving nonlinear weakly singular Fredholm integral equations

The present work proposes a numerical method to obtain an approximate solution of non-linear weakly singular Fredholm integral equations. The discrete Galerkin method in addition to thin-plate splines established on scattered points is utilized to estimate the solution of these integral equations. The thin-plate splines can be regarded as a type of free shape parameter radial basis functions which create an efficient and stable technique to approximate a function. The discrete Galerkin method for the approximate solution of integral equations results from the numerical integration of all integrals in the method. We utilize a special accurate quadrature formula via the non-uniform composite Gauss-Legendre integration rule and employ it to compute the singular integrals appeared in the scheme. Since the approach does not need any background meshes, it can be identified as a meshless method. Error analysis is also given for the method. Illustrative examples are shown clearly the reliability and efficiency of the new scheme and confirm the theoretical error estimates.