Symmetric boundary knot method

Abstract: The boundary knot method (BKM) is a recent boundary-type radial basis function (RBF) collocation scheme for general PDEs. Like the method of fundamental solution (MFS), the RBF is employed to approximate the inhomogeneous terms via the dual reciprocity principle. Unlike the MFS, the method uses a nonsingular general solution instead of a singular fundamental solution to evaluate the homogeneous solution so as to circumvent the controversial artificial boundary outside the physical domain. The BKM is meshfree, superconvergent, integration free, very easy to learn and program. The original BKM, however, loses symmetricity in the presense of mixed boundary. In this study, by analogy with Hermite RBF interpolation, we developed a symmetric BKM scheme. The accuracy and efficiency of the symmetric BKM are also numerically validated in some 2D and 3D Helmholtz and diffusion reaction problems under complicated geometries.