Meshless element-free Galerkin method for ground-coupled heat transfer problems

A meshless element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) which is applicable to arbitrary shapes but requires only nodal data is applied to two-dimensional steady-state ground-coupled heat transfer problems. The soil layer around underground constructions is modeled as a homogeneous medium and as a layered soil with two layers. Variational method is utilized to obtain the discrete equations. Moving least squares (MLS) approximants are used to construct the shape functions. Lagrange multiplier technique is employed to enforce the essential boundary conditions. The calculation precision of EFGM is validated by comparing EFGM results with those obtained by finite element method (FEM). EFGM reduce considerably the preparation of the model. EFGM is very appropriate for the ground-coupled heat transfer problems.