A mesh free approach using radial basis functions and parallel domain decomposition for solving three‐dimensional diffusion equations

Abstract

Abstract The analysis of transient heat conduction problems in large, complex computational domains is a problem of interest in many technological applications including electronic cooling, encapsulation using functionally graded composite materials, and cryogenics. In many of these applications, the domains may be multiply connected and contain moving boundaries making it desirable to consider meshless methods of analysis. The method of fundamental solutions along with a parallel domain decomposition method is developed for the solution of three‐dimensional parabolic differential equations. In the current approach, time is discretized using the generalized trapezoidal rule transforming the original parabolic partial differential equation into a sequence of non‐homogeneous modified Helmholtz equations. An approximate particular solution is derived using polyharmonic splines. Interfacial conditions between subdomains are satisfied using a Schwarz Neumann–Neumann iteration scheme. Outside of the first time step where zero initial flux is assumed, the initial estimates for the interfacial flux is given from the converged solution obtained during the previous time step. This significantly reduces the number of iterations required to meet the convergence criterion. The accuracy of the method of fundamental solutions approach is demonstrated through two benchmark problems. The parallel efficiency of the domain decomposition method is evaluated by considering cases with 8, 27, and 64 subdomains. Copyright 2004 © John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.