Analysis and application of MLPG7 for diffusion equations with nonlinear reaction terms

Abstract

This paper extends the recently proposed variant of meshless local Petrov Galerkin (MLPG) method, i.e., MLPG7, for solving time dependent PDEs. As test function, the method uses a novel modification of fundamental solution of Laplace operator that not only the test function itself but also its derivative vanish on boundary of local subdomains. Therefore, more stable local integral equations are obtained by replacing a boundary integral of derivatives of field variables with a domain integral of field variables itself. MLPG7 formulation converts the nonlinear governing equation into a system of first order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). For this system of ODEs, a theoretical stability analysis is carried out for the case of regularly spaced nodal points. Stability and convergence conditions for fully discretized equations by Euler (forward and backward) and Crank–Nicolson methods are investigated. The nonlinear term is treated iteratively. A numerical study investigates the convergence and stability of the method. A comparison is also done with some well-known methods and the results reveal the excellence of MLPG7. The convergence of the iterative approach is numerically verified by another illustrative test example. As nonlinear test problems, Allen–Cahn equations are studied.