The method of fundamental solutions for solving free boundary saturated seepage problem

The problem of seepage flow through a dam is free boundary problem that is more conveniently solved by a meshless method than a mesh-based method such as finite element method (FEM) and finite difference method (FDM). This paper presents method of fundamental solutions, which is one kind of meshless methods, to solve a dam problem using the fundamental solution to the Laplace's equation. Solutions on free boundary are determined by iteration and cubic spline interpolation. The numerical solutions then are compared with the boundary element method (BEM), FDM and FEM to display the performance of present method. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.