The method of fundamental solutions for the Oseen steady‐state viscous flow past obstacles of known or unknown shapes

In this paper, the steady‐state Oseen viscous flow equations past a known or unknown obstacle are solved numerically using the method of fundamental solutions (MFS), which is free of meshes, singularities, and numerical integrations. The direct problem is linear and well‐posed, whereas the inverse problem is nonlinear and ill‐posed. For the direct problem, the MFS computations of the fluid flow characteristics (velocity, pressure, drag, and lift coefficients) are in very good agreement with the previously published results obtained using other methods for the Oseen flow past circular and elliptic cylinders, as well as past two circular cylinders. In the inverse obstacle problem the boundary data and the internal measurement of the fluid velocity are minimized using the MATLAB^© optimization toolbox lsqnonlin routine. Regularization was found necessary in the case the measured data are contaminated with noise. Numerical results show accurate and stable reconstructions of various star‐shaped obstacles of circular, bean, or peanut cross‐section.     

Singular boundary method based on time‐dependent fundamental solutions for active noise control

Active noise control is an efficient strategy of noise control. A numerical wave shielding model to inhibit wave propagation, which can be considered as an extension of traditional active noise control, is established using the singular boundary method using time‐dependent fundamental solutions in this study. Two empirical formulas to evaluate the origin intensity factors with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are derived respectively. In comparison with other similar numerical methods, the method can obtain highly accurate results using very few boundary nodes and small CPU time. These meet the major technical requirements of simulation of active noise control. The subsequent numerical experiments show that the proposed model can shield efficiently from the wave propagation for both inner and exterior problems. By applying the newly derived empirical formulas, the CPU time of the singular boundary method is further reduced significantly, which makes the method a competitive new and efficient meshless method. In addition, the singular boundary method makes active noise control in an online manner via time‐dependent fundamental solutions as its basis functions.     

The Trefftz method using fundamental solutions for biharmonic equations

In this paper, the Trefftz method of fundamental solution (FS), called the method of fundamental solution (MFS), is used for biharmonic equations. The bounds of errors are derived for the MFS with Almansi’s fundamental solutions (denoted as the MAFS) in bounded simply connected domains. The exponential and polynomial convergence rates are obtained from highly and finitely smooth solutions, respectively. The stability analysis of the MAFS is also made for circular domains. Numerical experiments are carried out for both smooth and singularity problems. The numerical results coincide with the theoretical analysis made. When the particular solutions satisfying the biharmonic equation can be found, the method of particular solutions (MPS) is always superior to the MFS and the MAFS, based on numerical examples. However, if such singular particular solutions near the singular points do not exist, the local refinement of collocation nodes and the greedy adaptive techniques can be used for seeking better source points. Based on the computed results, the MFS using the greedy adaptive techniques may provide more accurate solutions for singularity problems. Moreover, the numerical solutions by the MAFS with Almansi’s FS are slightly better in accuracy and stability than those by the traditional MFS. Hence, the MAFS with the AFS is recommended for biharmonic equations due to its simplicity.     

A variational-type method of fundamental solutions for a Cauchy problem of Laplace’s equation

In this paper, we propose a new regularization method based on a finite-dimensional subspace generated from fundamental solutions for solving a Cauchy problem of Laplace’s equation in a simply-connected bounded domain. Based on a global conditional stability for the Cauchy problem of Laplace’s equation, the convergence analysis is given under a suitable choice for a regularization parameter and an a-priori bound assumption to the solution. Numerical experiments are provided to support the analysis and to show the effectiveness of the proposed method from both accuracy and stability.     

A numerical study of the SVD–MFS solution of inverse boundary value problems in two‐dimensional steady‐state linear thermoelasticity

We study the reconstruction of the missing thermal and mechanical data on an inaccessible part of the boundary in the case of two‐dimensional linear isotropic thermoelastic materials from overprescribed noisy measurements taken on the remaining accessible boundary part. This inverse problem is solved by using the method of fundamental solutions together with the method of particular solutions. The stabilization of this inverse problem is achieved using several singular value decomposition (SVD)‐based regularization methods, such as the Tikhonov regularization method (Tikhonov and Arsenin, Methods for solving ill‐posed problems, Nauka, Moscow, 1986), the damped SVD and the truncated SVD (Hansen, Rank‐deficient and discrete ill‐posed problems: numerical aspects of linear inversion, SIAM, Philadelphia, 1998), whilst the optimal regularization parameter is selected according to the discrepancy principle (Morozov, Sov Math Doklady 7 (1966), 414–417), generalized cross‐validation criterion (Golub et al. Technometrics 22 (1979), 1–35) and Hansen's L‐curve method (Hansen and O'Leary, SIAM J Sci Comput 14 (1993), 1487–503). © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 168–201, 2015     

The method of fundamental solutions with eigenfunction expansion method for nonhomogeneous diffusion equation

In this article we describe a numerical method to solve a nonhomogeneous diffusion equation with arbitrary geometry by combining the method of fundamental solutions (MFS), the method of particular solutions (MPS), and the eigenfunction expansion method (EEM). This forms a meshless numerical scheme of the MFS‐MPS‐EEM model to solve nonhomogeneous diffusion equations with time‐independent source terms and boundary conditions for any time and any shape. Nonhomogeneous diffusion equation with complex domain can be separated into a Poisson equation and a homogeneous diffusion equation using this model. The Poisson equation is solved by the MFS‐MPS model, in which the compactly supported radial basis functions are adopted for the MPS. On the other hand, utilizing the EEM the diffusion equation is first translated to a Helmholtz equation, which is then solved by the MFS together with the technique of the singular value decomposition (SVD). Since the present meshless method does not need mesh generation, nodal connectivity, or numerical integration, the computational effort and memory storage required are minimal as compared with other numerical schemes. Test results for two 2D diffusion problems show good comparability with the analytical solutions. The proposed algorithm is then extended to solve a problem with irregular domain and the results compare very well with solutions of a finite element scheme. Therefore, the present scheme has been proved to be very promising as a meshfree numerical method to solve nonhomogeneous diffusion equations with time‐independent source terms of any time frame, and for any arbitrary geometry. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2006     

A study on the method of fundamental solutions using an image concept

In this paper, both analytical and semi-analytical solutions for Green’s functions are obtained by using the image method which can be seen as a special case of method of fundamental solutions (MFS). The image method is employed to solve the Green’s function for the annular, eccentric and half-plane Laplace problems. In addition, an analytical solution is derived for the fixed-free annular case. For the half-plane problem with a circular hole and an eccentric annulus, semi-analytical solutions are both obtained by using the image concept after determining the strengths of two frozen image points and a free constant by matching boundary conditions. It is found that two frozen images terminated at the two focuses in the bipolar coordinates for the problems with two circular boundaries. A boundary value problem of an eccentric annulus without sources is also considered. Error distribution is plotted after comparing with the analytical solution derived by Lebedev et al. using the bipolar coordinates. The optimal locations for the source distribution in the MFS are also examined by using the image concept. It is observed that we should locate singularities on the two focuses to obtain better results in the MFS. Besides, whether the free constant is required or not in the MFS is also studied. The results are compared well with the analytical solutions.     

Multipole fast algorithm for the least‐squares approach of the method of fundamental solutions for three‐dimensional harmonic problems

In this article we describe an improvement in the speed of computation for the least‐squares method of fundamental solutions (MFS) by means of Greengard and Rokhlin's FMA. Iterative solution of the linear system of equations is performed for the equations given by the least‐squares formulation of the MFS. The results of applying the method to test problems from potential theory with a number of boundary points in the order of 80,000 show that the method can achieve fast solutions for the potential and its directional derivatives. The results show little loss of accuracy and a major reduction in the memory requirements compared to the direct solution method of the least squares problem with storage of the full MFS matrix. The method can be extended to the solution of overdetermined systems of equations arising from boundary integral methods with a large number of boundary integration points. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 19: 828–845, 2003.     

Efficient numerical methods for boundary data and right‐hand side reconstructions in elliptic partial differential equations

In this article, we discuss the application of two important numerical methods, Ritz–Galerkin and Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS), for solving some inverse problems, arising in the context of two‐dimensional elliptic equations. The main incentive for studying the considered problems is their wide applications in engineering fields. In the previous literature, the use of these methods, particularly MFS for right hand side reconstruction has been limited, partly due to stability concerns. We demonstrate that these diculties may be surmounted if the aforementioned methods are combined with techniques such as dual reciprocity method(DRM). Moreover, we incorporate some iterative regularization techniques. This fact is especially veried by taking into account the noisy data with boundary conditions. In addition, parts of this article are dedicated to the problem of boundary data approximation and the issue of numerical stability, ending with a general discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of various methods. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1995–2026, 2015     

The method of fundamental solutions for elliptic boundary value problems

The aim of this paper is to describe the development of the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) and related methods over the last three decades. Several applications of MFS-type methods are presented. Techniques by which such methods are extended to certain classes of non-trivial problems and adapted for the solution of inhomogeneous problems are also outlined. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Localized method of fundamental solutions for large-scale modeling of two-dimensional elasticity problems

The traditional method of fundamental solutions (MFS) based on the “global” boundary discretization leads to dense and non-symmetric coefficient matrices that, although smaller in sizes, require huge computational cost to compute the system of equations using direct solvers. In this study, a localized version of the MFS (LMFS) is proposed for the large-scale modeling of two-dimensional (2D) elasticity problems. In the LMFS, the whole analyzed domain can be divided into small subdomains with a simple geometry. To each of the subdomain, the traditional MFS formulation is applied and the unknown coefficients on the local geometric boundary can be calculated by the moving least square method. The new method yields a sparse and banded matrix system which makes the method very attractive for large-scale simulations. Numerical examples with up to 200,000 unknowns are solved successfully using the developed LMFS code.     

A relaxation method of an alternating iterative MFS algorithm for the Cauchy problem associated with the two‐dimensional modified Helmholtz equation

We propose two algorithms involving the relaxation of either the given Dirichlet data or the prescribed Neumann data on the over‐specified boundary in the case of the alternating iterative algorithm of Kozlov et al. (USSR Comput Math Math Phys 31 (1991), 45–52) applied to the Cauchy problem for the two‐dimensional modified Helmholtz equation. The two mixed, well‐posed and direct problems corresponding to every iteration of the numerical procedure are solved using the method of fundamental solutions (MFS), in conjunction with the Tikhonov regularization method. For each direct problem considered, the optimal value of the regularization parameter is selected according to the generalized cross‐validation criterion. The iterative MFS algorithms with relaxation are tested for Cauchy problems associated with the modified Helmholtz equation in two‐dimensional geometries to confirm the numerical convergence, stability, accuracy and computational efficiency of the method. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2011     

A new method of fundamental solutions applied to nonhomogeneous elliptic problems

The classical method of fundamental solutions (MFS) has only been used to approximate the solution of homogeneous PDE problems. Coupled with other numerical schemes such as domain integration, dual reciprocity method (with polynomial or radial basis functions interpolation), the MFS can be extended to solve the nonhomogeneous problems. This paper presents an extension of the MFS for the direct approximation of Poisson and nonhomogeneous Helmholtz problems. This can be done by using the fundamental solutions of the associated eigenvalue equations as a basis to approximate the nonhomogeneous term. The particular solution of the PDE can then be evaluated. An advantage of this mesh-free method is that the resolution of both homogeneous and nonhomogeneous equations can be combined in a unified way and it can be used for multiscale problems. Numerical simulations are presented and show the quality of the approximations for several test examples. AMS subject classification 35J25, 65N38, 65R20, 74J20     

Numerical calculation of eigensolutions of 3D shapes using the method of fundamental solutions

In this work, we study the application of the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS) for the calculation of eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes in two and three‐dimensional domains. We address some mathematical results about properties of the single layer operator related to the eigenfrequencies. Moreover, we propose algorithms for the distribution of the collocation and source points of the MFS in three‐dimensional domains which is an extension of the choices considered by Alves and Antunes (CMC 2(2005), 251–266) for the two‐dimensional case. Also the application of the Plane Waves Method is investigated. Several examples with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are considered to illustrate the performance of the proposed methods. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 27: 1525–1550, 2011     

Fundamental solutions and asymptotic numerical methods for bifurcation analysis of nonlinear bi‐harmonic problems

New algorithms, combining asymptotic numerical method (ANM) and method of fundamental solutions, are proposed to compute bifurcation points on branch solutions of a nonlinear bi‐harmonic problem. Three methods, mainly based on asymptotic developments framework, are then proposed. The first one consists in exploiting the ANM step accumulation close to the bifurcation points on a solution branch, the second method allows the introduction of an indicator that vanishes at the bifurcation points, and finally the first real root of the Padé approximant denominator represents the third bifurcation indicator. Two numerical examples are considered to analyze the robustness of these algorithms.     

Image solutions for boundary value problems without sources

In this paper, we employ the image method to solve boundary value problems in domains containing circular or spherical shaped boundaries free of sources. two and threeD problems as well as symmetric and anti-symmetric cases are considered. By treating the image method as a special case of method of fundamental solutions, only at most four unknown strengths, distributed at the center, two locations of frozen images and one free constant, need to be determined. Besides, the optimal locations of sources are determined. For the symmetric and anti-symmetric cases, only two coefficients are required to match the two boundary conditions. The convergence rate versus number of image group is numerically performed. The differences of the image solutions between 2D and 3D problems are addressed. It is found that the 2D solution in terms of the bipolar coordinates is mathematically equivalent to that of the simplest MFS with only two sources and one free constant. Finally, several examples are demonstrated to see the validity of the image method for boundary value problems.     

Treatment of singularities in the method of fundamental solutions for two-dimensional Helmholtz-type equations

We investigate a meshless method for the accurate and non-oscillatory solution of problems associated with two-dimensional Helmholtz-type equations in the presence of boundary singularities. The governing equation and boundary conditions are approximated by the method of fundamental solutions (MFS). It is well known that the existence of boundary singularities affects adversely the accuracy and convergence of standard numerical methods. The solutions to such problems and/or their corresponding derivatives may have unbounded values in the vicinity of the singularity. This difficulty is overcome by subtracting from the original MFS solution the corresponding singular functions, without an appreciable increase in the computational effort and at the same time keeping the same MFS approximation. Four examples for both the Helmholtz and the modified Helmholtz equations are carefully investigated and the numerical results presented show an excellent performance of the approach developed.     

Numerical solution of the one‐dimensional heat equation on the bounded intervals using fundamental solutions

We present a numerical method for the solution of heat equation with sufficiently smooth initial condition, using fundamental solutions of heat equation in terms of singularities. In this work various aspects of this method such as efficiency, stability, and convergency are given and a comparison with some well‐known finite difference methods will be obtained. Numerical results are reported to support the superiority of the developed method. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008     

A block monotone iterative method for numerical solutions of nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems

The aim of this article is to develop a new block monotone iterative method for the numerical solutions of a nonlinear elliptic boundary value problem. The boundary value problem is discretized into a system of nonlinear algebraic equations, and a block monotone iterative method is established for the system using an upper solution or a lower solution as the initial iteration. The sequence of iterations can be computed in a parallel fashion and converge monotonically to a maximal solution or a minimal solution of the system. Three theoretical comparison results are given for the sequences from the proposed method and the block Jacobi monotone iterative method. The comparison results show that the sequence from the proposed method converges faster than the corresponding sequence given by the block Jacobi monotone iterative method. A simple and easily verified condition is obtained to guarantee a geometric convergence of the block monotone iterations. The numerical results demonstrate advantages of this new approach. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2011