Matrices Associated with Moving Least-Squares Approximation and Corresponding Inequalities

In this article, some properties of matrices of moving least-squares approximation have been proven. The used technique is based on known inequalities for singular-values of matrices. Some inequalities for the norm of coefficients-vector of the linear approximation have been proven.

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.

Global interpolating meshless shape function based on generalized moving least-square for structural dynamic analysis

A global interpolating meshless shape function based on the generalized moving least-square （GMLS） is formulated by the transformation technique. Both the shape function and its derivatives meet the Kronecker delta function property. With the interpolating GMLS （IGMLS） shape function, an improved element-free Galerkin （EFG） method is proposed for the structural dynamic analysis. Compared with the conven- tional EFG method, the obvious advantage of the proposed method is that the essential boundary conditions including both displacements and derivatives can be imposed by the straightforward way. Meanwhile, it can greatly improve the ill-condition feature of the standard GMLS approximation, and provide good accuracy at low cost. The dynamic analyses of the Euler beam and Kirchhoff plate are performed to demonstrate the feasi- bility and effectiveness of the improved method. The comparison between the numerical results of the conventional method and the improved method shows that the proposed method has better stability, higher accuracy, and less time consumption.

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.

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.

An improved boundary element-free method (IBEFM) for two-dimensional potential problems

The interpolating moving least-squares （IMLS） method is discussed first in this paper. And the formulae of the IMLS method obtained by Lancaster are revised. Then on the basis of the boundary element-free method （BEFM）, combining the boundary integral equation （BIE） method with the IMLS method, the improved boundary element-free method （IBEFM） for two-dimensional potential problems is presented, and the corresponding formulae of the IBEFM are obtained. In the BEFM, boundary conditions are applied directly, but the shape function in the MLS does not satisfy the property of the Kronecker ~ function. This is a problem of the BEFM, and must be solved theoretically. In the IMLS method, when the shape function satisfies the property of the Kronecker 5 function, then the boundary conditions, in the meshless method based on the IMLS method, can be applied directly. Then the IBEFM, based on the IMLS method, is a direct meshless boundary integral equation method in which the basic unknown quantity is the real solution of the nodal variables, and the boundary conditions can be applied directly and easily, thus it gives a greater computational precision. Some numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method.

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.

An improved interpolating element-free Galerkin method with a nonsingular weight function for two-dimensional potential problems

In this paper, an improved interpolating moving least-square （IIMLS） method is presented. The shape function of the IIMLS method satisfies the property of the Kronecker 5 function. The weight function used in the IIMLS method is nonsingular. Then the IIMLS method can overcome the difficulties caused by the singularity of the weight function in the IMLS method. The number of unknown coefficients in the trial function of the IIMLS method is less than that of the moving least-square （MLS） approximation. Then by combining the IIMLS method with the Galerkin weak form of the potential problem, the improved interpolating element-free Galerkin （IIEFG） method for two-dimensional potential problems is presented. Compared with the conventional element-free Galerkin （EFG） method, the IIEFG method can directly use the essential boundary conditions. Then the IIEFG method has higher accuracy. For demonstration, three numerical examples are solved using the IIEFG method.

A 3D shell-like approach using element-free Galerkin method for analysis of thin and thick plate structures

A new efficient meshless method based on the element-free Galerkin method is proposed to analyze the static deformation of thin and thick plate structures in this paper. Using the new 3D shell-like kinematics in analogy to the solid-shell concept of the finite element method, discretization is carried out by the nodes located on the upper and lower surfaces of the structures. The approximation of all unknown field variables is carried out by using the moving least squares （MLS） approximation scheme in the in-plane directions, while the linear interpolation is applied through the thickness direction. Thus, different boundary conditions are defined only using displacements and penalty method is used to enforce the essential boundary conditions. The constrained Galerkin weak form, which incorporates only dis- placement degrees of freedom （d.o.f.s）, is derived. A modified 3D constitutive relationship is adopted in order to avoid or eliminate some self-locking effects. The numeric efficiency of the proposed meshless formulation is illustrated by the numeric examples.

ANALYSIS OF 2-D THIN STRUCTURES BY THE MESHLESS REGULAR HYBRID BOUNDARY NODE METHOD

Thin structures are generally solved by the Finite Element Method(FEM), using plate or shell finite elements which have manylimitations in applications, such as numerical locking, edge effects,length scaling and the cnvergence problem. Recently, by proposing anew approach to tranting the nearly- singular integrals, Liu et al.developed a BEM to successfully solve thin structures with thethickness-to- length ratios in the micro-or nano-scales. On the otherhand, the meshless Regular Hybrid Boundary Node Method (RHBNM), whichis proposed by the current authors and based on a modified functionaland the Moving Least-Square (MLS) approximation, has very promisingapplications for engineering problems owing To its meshless natureand dimension-reduction advantage, and not involving any singular ornearly-singular Integrals. Test examples show that the RHBNM can alsobe applied readily to thin structures with high accu- Racy withoutany modification.

A new complex variable meshless method for transient heat conduction problems

In this paper, based on the improved complex variable moving least-square （ICVMLS） approximation, a new complex variable meshless method （CVMM） for two-dimensional （2D） transient heat conduction problems is presented. The variational method is employed to obtain the discrete equations, and the essential boundary conditions are imposed by the penalty method. As the transient heat conduction problems are related to time, the Crank-Nicolson difference scheme for two-point boundary value problems is selected for the time discretization. Then the corresponding formulae of the CVMM for 2D heat conduction problems are obtained. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, numerical examples are given to show the high convergence rate, good accuracy, and high efficiency of the CVMM presented in this paper.

The dimension split element-free Galerkin method for three-dimensional potential problems

This paper presents the dimension split element-free Galerkin （DSEFG） method for three-dimensional potential problems, and the corresponding formulae are obtained. The main idea of the DSEFG method is that a three-dimensional potential problem can be transformed into a series of two-dimensional problems. For these two-dimensional problems, the improved moving least-squares （IMLS） approximation is applied to construct the shape function, which uses an orthogonal function system with a weight function as the basis functions. The Galerkin weak form is applied to obtain a discretized system equation, and the penalty method is employed to impose the essential boundary condition. The finite difference method is selected in the splitting direction. For the purposes of demonstration, some selected numerical examples are solved using the DSEFG method. The convergence study and error analysis of the DSEFG method are presented. The numerical examples show that the DSEFG method has greater computational precision and computational efficiency than the IEFG method.

A new complex variable element-free Galerkin method for two-dimensional potential problems

In this paper, based on the element-free Galerkin （EFG） method and the improved complex variable moving least- square （ICVMLS） approximation, a new meshless method, which is the improved complex variable element-free Galerkin （ICVEFG） method for two-dimensional potential problems, is presented. In the method, the integral weak form of control equations is employed, and the Lagrange multiplier is used to apply the essential boundary conditions. Then the corresponding formulas of the ICVEFG method for two-dimensional potential problems are obtained. Compared with the complex variable moving least-square （CVMLS） approximation proposed by Cheng, the functional in the ICVMLS approximation has an explicit physical meaning. Furthermore, the ICVEFG method has greater computational precision and efficiency. Three numerical examples are given to show the validity of the proposed method.

Topology optimization using the improved element-free Galerkin method for elasticity

The improved element-free Galerkin （IEFG） method of elasticity is used to solve the topology optimization problems. In this method, the improved moving least-squares approximation is used to form the shape function. In a topology opti- mization process, the entire structure volume is considered as the constraint. From the solid isotropic microstructures with penalization, we select relative node density as a design variable. Then we choose the minimization of compliance to be an objective function, and compute its sensitivity with the adjoint method. The IEFG method in this paper can overcome the disadvantages of the singular matrices that sometimes appear in conventional element-free Galerkin （EFG） method. The central processing unit （CPU） time of each example is given to show that the IEFG method is more efficient than the EFG method under the same precision, and the advantage that the IEFG method does not form singular matrices is also shown.

Analysis of elastoplasticity problems using an improved complex variable element-free Galerkin method

In this paper, based on the conjugate of the complex basis function, a new complex variable moving least-squares approximation is discussed. Then using the new approximation to obtain the shape function, an improved complex variable element-free Galerkin（ICVEFG） method is presented for two-dimensional（2D） elastoplasticity problems. Compared with the previous complex variable moving least-squares approximation, the new approximation has greater computational precision and efficiency. Using the penalty method to apply the essential boundary conditions, and using the constrained Galerkin weak form of 2D elastoplasticity to obtain the system equations, we obtain the corresponding formulae of the ICVEFG method for 2D elastoplasticity. Three selected numerical examples are presented using the ICVEFG method to show that the ICVEFG method has the advantages such as greater precision and computational efficiency over the conventional meshless methods.

Solving unsteady Schr?dinger equation using the improved element-free Galerkin method

By employing the improved moving least-square （IMLS） approximation, the improved element-free Galerkin （IEFG） method is presented for the unsteady Schrodinger equation. In the IEFG method, the two-dimensional （2D） trial function is approximated by the IMLS approximation, the variation method is used to obtain the discrete equations, and the essential boundary conditions are imposed by the penalty method. Because the number of coefficients in the IMLS approximation is less than in the moving least-square （MLS） approximation, fewer nodes are needed in the entire domain when the IMLS approximation is used than when the MLS approximation is adopted. Then the IEFG method has high computational efficiency and accuracy. Several numerical examples are given to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the IEFG method in this paper.

An improved complex variable element-free Galerkin method for two-dimensional elasticity problems

In this paper, the improved complex variable moving least-squares （ICVMLS） approximation is presented. The ICVMLS approximation has an explicit physics meaning. Compared with the complex variable moving least-squares （CVMLS） approximations presented by Cheng and Ren, the ICVMLS approximation has a great computational precision and efficiency. Based on the element-free Galerkin （EFG） method and the ICVMLS approximation, the improved complex variable element-free Galerkin （ICVEFG） method is presented for two-dimensional elasticity problems, and the corresponding formulae are obtained. Compared with the conventional EFC method, the ICVEFG method has a great computational accuracy and efficiency. For the purpose of demonstration, three selected numerical examples are solved using the ICVEFG method.

Complex variable element-free Galerkin method for viscoelasticity problems

Based on the complex variable moving least-square （CVMLS） approximation, the complex variable element-free Galerkin （CVEFG） method for two-dimensional viscoelasticity problems under the creep condition is presented in this paper. The Galerkin weak form is employed to obtain the equation system, and the penalty method is used to apply the essential boundary conditions, then the corresponding formulae of the CVEFG method for two-dimensional viscoelasticity problems under the creep condition are obtained. Compared with the element-free Galerkin （EFG） method, with the same node distribution, the CVEFG method has higher precision, and to obtain the similar precision, the CVEFG method has greater computational efficiency. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the validity and the efficiency of the method.

Meshless analysis of an improved element-free Galerkin method for linear and nonlinear elliptic problems

We first give a stabilized improved moving least squares （IMLS） approximation, which has better computational stability and precision than the IMLS approximation. Then, analysis of the improved element-free Galerkin method is provided theoretically for both linear and nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems. Finally, numerical examples are given to verify the theoretical analysis.