A STUDY ON THE WEIGHT FUNCTION OF THE MOVING LEAST SQUARE APPROXIMATION IN THE LOCAL BOUNDARY INTEGRAL EQUATION METHOD

The meshless method is a new numerical technique presented in recent years.It uses the moving least square(MLS)approximation as a shape function.The smoothness of the MLS approximation is determined by that of the basic function and of the weight function,and is mainly determined by that of the weight function.Therefore,the weight function greatly affects the accuracy of results obtained.Different kinds of weight functions,such as the spline function, the Gauss function and so on,are proposed recently by many researchers.In the present work,the features of various weight functions are illustrated through solving elasto-static problems using the local boundary integral equation method.The effect of various weight functions on the accuracy, convergence and stability of results obtained is also discussed.Examples show that the weight function proposed by Zhou Weiyuan and Gauss and the quartic spline weight function are better than the others if parameters c and α in Gauss and exponential weight functions are in the range of reasonable values,respectively,and the higher the smoothness of the weight function,the better the features of the solutions.

STUDY ON PARAMETERS FOR TOPOLOGICAL VARIABLES FIELD INTERPOLATED BY MOVING LEAST SQUARE APPROXIMATION

This paper presents a new approach to the structural topology optimization of continuum structures. Material-point independent variables are presented to illustrate the existence condition,or inexistence of the material points and their vicinity instead of elements or nodes in popular topology optimization methods. Topological variables field is constructed by moving least square approximation which is used as a shape function in the meshless method. Combined with finite element analyses,not only checkerboard patterns and mesh-dependence phenomena are overcome by this continuous and smooth topological variables field,but also the locations and numbers of topological variables can be arbitrary. Parameters including the number of quadrature points,scaling parameter,weight function and so on upon optimum topological configurations are discussed. Two classic topology optimization problems are solved successfully by the proposed method. The method is found robust and no numerical instabilities are found with proper parameters.

A meshless algorithm with moving least square approximations for elliptic Signorini problems

Based on the moving least square （MLS） approximations and the boundary integral equations （BIEs）, a meshless algorithm is presented in this paper for elliptic Signorini problems. In the algorithm, a projection operator is used to tackle the nonlinear boundary inequality conditions. The Signorini problem is then reformulated as BIEs and the unknown boundary variables are approximated by the MLS approximations. Accordingly, only a nodal data structure on the boundary of a domain is required. The convergence of the algorithm is proven. Numerical examples are given to show the high convergence rate and high computational efficiency of the presented algorithm.

A meshless algorithm with the improved moving least square approximation for nonlinear improved Boussinesq equation

An improved moving least square meshless method is developed for the numerical solution of the nonlinear improved Boussinesq equation. After the approximation of temporal derivatives, nonlinear systems of discrete algebraic equations are established and are solved by an iterative algorithm. Convergence of the iterative algorithm is discussed. Shifted and scaled basis functions are incorporated into the method to guarantee convergence and stability of numerical results. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the high convergence rate and high computational accuracy of the method.

ICM Method Combined with Meshfree Approximation for Continuum Structure

The independent continuous mapping（ICM） method is integrated into element free Galerkin method and a new implementation of topology optimization for continuum structure is presented.To facilitate the enforcement of the essential boundary condition and derivative of various sensitivities,a singular weight function in element free Galerkin method is introduced.Material point variable is defined to illustrate the condition of material point and its vicinity instead of element or node.The topological variables field is constructed by moving least square approximation which inherits the continuity and smoothness of the weight function.Due to reciprocal relationships between the topological variables and design variables,various structural responses sensitivities are derived according to the method for calculating the partial derivatives of compound functions.Numerical examples indicate that checkerboard pattern and mesh-dependence phenomena are overcome without additional restriction methods.

A MESHLESS LOCAL PETROV-GALERKIN METHOD FOR GEOMETRICALLY NONLINEAR PROBLEMS

Nonlinear formulations of the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin （MLPG） method are presented for geometrically nonlinear problems. The method requires no mesh in computation and therefore avoids mesh distortion difficulties in the large deformation analysis. The essential boundary conditions in the present formulation axe imposed by a penalty method. An incremental and iterative solution procedure is used to solve geometrically nonlinear problems. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in geometrically nonlinear problems analysis. Numerical results show that the MLPG method is an effective one and that the values of the unknown variable are quite accurate.

LOCAL PETROV-GALERKIN METHOD FOR A THIN PLATE

The meshless local Petrov_Galerkin (MLPG) method for solving the bending problem of the thin plate were presented and discussed. The method used the moving least_squares approximation to interpolate the solution variables, and employed a local symmetric weak form. The present method was a truly meshless one as it did not need a finite element or boundary element mesh, either for purpose of interpolation of the solution, or for the integration of the energy. All integrals could be easily evaluated over regularly shaped domains (in general, spheres in three_dimensional problems) and their boundaries. The essential boundary conditions were enforced by the penalty method. Several numerical examples were presented to illustrate the implementation and performance of the present method. The numerical examples presented show that high accuracy can be achieved for arbitrary grid geometries for clamped and simply_supported edge conditions. No post processing procedure is required to computer the strain and stress, since the original solution from the present method, using the moving least squares approximation, is already smooth enough.

Improved non-singular local boundary integral equation method

When the source nodes are on the global boundary in the implementation of local boundary integral equation method （LBIEM）, singularities in the local boundary integrals need to be treated specially. In the current paper, local integral equations are adopted for the nodes inside the domain and moving least square approximation （MLSA） for the nodes on the global boundary, thus singularities will not occur in the new al- gorithm. At the same time, approximation errors of boundary integrals are reduced significantly. As applications and numerical tests, Laplace equation and Helmholtz equation problems are considered and excellent numerical results are obtained. Furthermore, when solving the Helmholtz problems, the modified basis functions with wave solutions are adapted to replace the usually-used monomial basis functions. Numerical results show that this treatment is simple and effective and its application is promising in solutions for the wave propagation problem with high wave number.