RBF-based meshless methods for 2D elastostatic problems

The work presented here concerns the use of radial basis functions (RBFs) for the analysis of two dimensional elastostatic problems. The basic characteristic of the formulation is the definition of a global approximation for the variables of interest in each problem (the deflection for the plate bending problem and the stress function for the stretching plates) from a set of RBFs conveniently placed (but not necessarily in a regular manner) at the boundary and in the domain. Depending on the type of collocation chosen, non-symmetric or symmetric systems of linear equations are obtained. Comparisons are made with other results available in the literature. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.