Spline-based meshfree method with extended basis

In this work, an extension has been performed on the analysis basis of spline-based meshfree method (SBMFM) to stabilize its solution. The potential weakness of the SBMFM is its numerical instability from using regular grid background mesh. That is, if an extremely small trimmed element is produced by the trimming curves that represent boundaries of the analysis domain, it can induce an excessively large condition number in global system matrix. To resolve the instability problem, the extension technique of the weighted extended B-spline (WEB-spline) is implemented in the SBMFM. The basis functions with very small trimmed supports are extrapolated by neighboring basis functions with some special scheme so that those basis functions can be condensed in the solution process. In order to impose essential boundary conditions in the SBMFM with extended basis, Nitsche's method is implemented. Using numerical examples, the presented SBMFM with extended basis is shown to be valid and effective. Moreover, the condition number of the system is well-managed guaranteeing the stability of the numerical analysis. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.