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Meshfree methods

Meshfree methods, also known as meshless methods, are a class of numerical techniques for approximating solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs) using a set of arbitrarily distributed nodes or particles within a problem domain and its boundaries, without requiring a predefined mesh or connectivity between nodes.^[1] These methods rely on interpolation or approximation functions, such as moving least squares or radial basis functions, to construct shape functions that enable the discretization of governing equations directly on the scattered nodes.^[2] By eliminating the mesh, they address limitations of traditional grid-based approaches like the finite element method (FEM), particularly in scenarios involving complex geometries or adaptive node refinement.^[1] The development of meshfree methods traces its roots to the late 1970s, with the introduction of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) by Gingold and Monaghan in 1977 for simulating astrophysical phenomena, marking one of the earliest truly meshfree formulations.^[3] This was followed by foundational work in the 1990s, including the diffuse element method (DEM) proposed by Nayroles et al. in 1992, which employed moving least squares approximations, and the element-free Galerkin (EFG) method developed by Belytschko et al. in 1994, which enhanced accuracy and convergence for solid mechanics problems.^[2] Further progress came with the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method by Atluri and Zhu in 1998, introducing local weak-form formulations to improve stability and boundary condition enforcement.^[3] Over the subsequent decades, the field matured, with advancements in nodal integration techniques and enforcement of essential boundary conditions resolving early challenges, leading to broader adoption by the 2010s.^[4] Meshfree methods offer several key advantages over mesh-dependent techniques, including reduced preprocessing costs by avoiding mesh generation, greater flexibility for handling large deformations, crack propagation, and moving boundaries without remeshing, and improved adaptability to irregular or evolving domains.^[1] They are particularly effective for higher-dimensional problems and convection-dominated flows, where mesh distortion in FEM can lead to inaccuracies.^[2] However, they often require careful selection of support sizes for shape functions and can demand higher computational resources for integration in some formulations.^[4] Classified by their mathematical formulation, meshfree methods include weak-form approaches like EFG and MLPG, which use variational principles for global or local integrals; strong-form collocation methods that directly enforce PDEs at nodes; and hybrid weak-strong forms for enhanced efficiency.^[2] Approximation techniques further diversify them, encompassing partition-of-unity methods (e.g., based on moving least squares), point interpolation methods, and radial point interpolation methods using polynomial or radial basis functions.^[1] In applications, meshfree methods have found extensive use in computational mechanics, including structural analysis for bending, buckling, and vibration; fracture mechanics for modeling crack growth in materials like composites and functionally graded materials; and fluid-structure interactions such as high-velocity impacts and manufacturing processes.^[3] Their ability to simulate material failure and adaptive refinement has made them valuable in engineering fields like aerospace and biomechanics, with ongoing research focusing on improving computational efficiency and coupling with other methods.^[1]

Introduction

Definition and Scope

Meshfree methods, also known as meshless methods, are a class of numerical techniques employed in computational science and engineering to approximate solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs) without relying on a predefined mesh or grid structure. Instead, these methods utilize a set of scattered nodes or particles distributed throughout the domain and its boundaries to construct approximations, typically through kernel functions, moving least squares (MLS) approximations, or radial basis functions (RBFs) that generate shape functions. This approach allows for flexible discretization, avoiding the need for element connectivity, which is a hallmark of traditional methods.^[5]^[6] The scope of meshfree methods encompasses a wide range of problems in numerical analysis, particularly those in solid and fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and fracture dynamics, where traditional meshing becomes inefficient or impractical. They are especially advantageous for simulations involving large deformations, crack propagation, and adaptive refinement, as nodes can be easily added or relocated without remeshing, thereby reducing computational overhead and improving accuracy in dynamic scenarios. In contrast to mesh-based methods like the finite element method (FEM) and finite difference method (FDM), which depend on fixed grids or elements that can distort under deformation, meshfree methods maintain robustness by decoupling the approximation from geometric connectivity.^[3]^[7]^[5] Key concepts in meshfree methods include the distribution of nodes, which can adopt Lagrangian formulations—where nodes advect with the material for tracking interfaces and deformations—or Eulerian formulations with fixed nodes for stationary problems like steady-state flows. Essential boundary conditions are enforced through techniques such as the penalty method, which introduces a large coefficient to constrain displacements, or Lagrange multipliers, which weakly impose constraints via additional variables in the system equations. These mechanisms ensure conformity at boundaries without mesh enforcement.^[8]^[9]^[7] A basic formulation in meshfree methods approximates a function u(\mathbf{x}) as \hat{u}(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_{i=1}^{n} p_i(\mathbf{x}) \alpha_i, where p_i(\mathbf{x}) are basis functions (e.g., polynomials) evaluated locally, and \alpha_i are coefficients determined by solving a weighted residual over a support domain, often via MLS to satisfy reproduction conditions for accuracy. This approximation is then substituted into the weak or strong form of the PDE to form a discrete system.^[6]^[5]

Historical Context

Meshfree methods originated in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily driven by challenges in simulating astrophysical phenomena and fluid dynamics without relying on structured grids. The foundational technique, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), was independently introduced by Gingold and Monaghan in 1977 for modeling non-spherical stars and polytropic stellar structures, and by Lucy in the same year for testing fission hypotheses in astronomical contexts.^[10]^[11] These early developments addressed N-body problems in unbounded domains, where traditional mesh-based approaches struggled with irregular geometries and large deformations typical of astrophysical simulations.^[12] The motivation for meshfree methods intensified in the 1980s and early 1990s due to the inherent limitations of the finite element method (FEM), particularly its difficulties in handling crack propagation, material discontinuities, and frequent remeshing requirements in fracture mechanics and large-deformation problems.^[3] This shift toward meshfree alternatives gained momentum in the 1990s as researchers adapted particle-based ideas from fluids to solid mechanics. Key milestones include the element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) proposed by Belytschko et al. in 1994, which extended moving least squares approximations to Galerkin formulations for elasticity and fracture analysis.^[13] Shortly thereafter, Liu et al. introduced reproducing kernel particle methods (RKPM) in 1995, enhancing interpolation accuracy through kernel reproduction conditions for structural dynamics applications.^[14] By 2000, Silling formulated peridynamics as a nonlocal meshfree framework, enabling inherent modeling of discontinuities without explicit crack tracking.^[15] The early 2000s marked growing institutional interest, with the first international workshops on meshfree methods convening to discuss theoretical foundations and implementations, fostering collaboration among researchers. By the mid-2000s, practical adoption accelerated, as evidenced by the integration of meshfree capabilities, such as EFG, into major simulation software like LS-DYNA around 2005 for handling severe distortions in solid mechanics simulations.^[16]

Fundamentals

Motivation and Challenges Addressed

Meshfree methods were developed primarily to overcome the limitations of mesh-based techniques like the finite element method (FEM) in handling severe distortions and adaptive refinements. In large deformation problems, such as those involving hyperelastic materials or extreme material nonlinearity, traditional meshes often tangle or invert, leading to numerical instabilities and requiring frequent remeshing that compromises accuracy through field variable interpolation errors.^[17] By relying on scattered nodal points without predefined connectivity, meshfree methods avoid these distortions entirely, enabling robust simulations of processes like metal forming or geomechanical flows where mesh entanglement is prevalent.^[17] Additionally, they facilitate the insertion of nodes for h-adaptive refinement in regions of high gradients, simplifying the modeling of evolving solution fields without the overhead of mesh regeneration.^[18] A key challenge addressed by meshfree methods is the high computational expense and error-prone nature of remeshing in FEM applications involving moving discontinuities, such as crack propagation in fracture mechanics. In these scenarios, conforming the mesh to the crack path demands iterative adjustments that can consume significant preprocessing time and introduce discretization biases, particularly when cracks branch or interact with material interfaces. Meshfree approaches circumvent this by using visibility criteria or enrichment functions to model discontinuities directly on the nodal cloud, preserving solution integrity without geometric reconfiguration.^[4] They also excel in simulating free surfaces and multi-material interfaces, where FEM struggles with mesh alignment and boundary conformity, as seen in multiphase flow or composite failure analyses.^[18] These capabilities make meshfree methods particularly suited to specific engineering and scientific scenarios, including high-velocity impact simulations where rapid crack initiation and fragmentation occur under extreme loading. In biomedical modeling, they enable accurate representation of soft tissue deformation during procedures like needle insertion or surgical manipulation, capturing nonlinear viscoelastic responses without mesh-induced artifacts.^[19] Similarly, for high-strain-rate events such as explosive loading or ballistic penetration, meshfree methods handle the coupled effects of inertia, plasticity, and failure more reliably than FEM, avoiding simulation breakdowns from element distortion.^[17] Compared to FEM, meshfree methods significantly reduce preprocessing efforts in adaptive and discontinuous problems by eliminating mesh generation and remeshing steps, though they incur higher computational costs per time step due to the evaluation of nonlocal kernel approximations.^[17] This trade-off is often justified in applications where solution fidelity under complex kinematics outweighs uniform efficiency.^[18]

Core Mathematical Principles

Meshfree methods rely on approximation techniques that construct continuous fields from scattered nodal data without requiring a predefined mesh. A central approach is the moving least squares (MLS) approximation, which generates shape functions to interpolate or approximate functions over the domain. In MLS, the approximation of a function u(\mathbf{x}) at a point \mathbf{x} is given by u^h(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_i N_i(\mathbf{x}) u_i, where u_i are nodal values and N_i(\mathbf{x}) are the shape functions. These shape functions are derived by minimizing a weighted least squares fit to a polynomial basis \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}) of order m, yielding N_i(\mathbf{x}) = \mathbf{p}^T(\mathbf{x}) \mathbf{A}^{-1}(\mathbf{x}) \mathbf{b}_i(\mathbf{x}), where \mathbf{b}_i(\mathbf{x}) = w(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_i) \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}_i) and \mathbf{A}(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_j w(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_j) \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}_j) \mathbf{p}^T(\mathbf{x}_j) as the weighted moment matrix.^[13] This formulation ensures local support and smoothness, allowing flexibility in handling irregular node distributions.^[20] Kernel functions play a crucial role in defining the weights w(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_j) within support domains, which are neighborhoods around each point \mathbf{x} encompassing a finite number of nodes. The kernel W(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_i, h) must satisfy properties such as positivity, compactness (zero outside a radius h), normalization, and monotonic decrease with distance to ensure stable and accurate approximations. A common example is the cubic spline window function, defined as w(s) = 1 - 3s^2 + 2s^3 for $0 \leq s < 1 and zero otherwise, where s = |\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_i|/h.^[21] The choice of kernel and support domain size influences the method's accuracy and computational cost, with compact support enabling efficient sparse matrices.^[22] Discretization in meshfree methods typically involves formulating the weak form of partial differential equations (PDEs) and integrating over the domain using these approximations. For a Galerkin approach, the weak form \int_\Omega \mathbf{v} \cdot \mathcal{L} u \, d\Omega = \int_\Omega \mathbf{v} \cdot f \, d\Omega + \boundary is discretized as \sum_i \int_\Omega N_i \mathcal{L} ( \sum_j N_j u_j ) \, d\Omega = \sum_i \int_\Omega N_i f \, d\Omega + \boundary, leading to a stiffness matrix from nodal contributions.^[13] Collocation methods, alternatively, enforce the strong form directly at nodes, simplifying implementation but potentially reducing stability. Essential boundary conditions are imposed via the partition of unity property, where \sum_i N_i(\mathbf{x}) = 1, allowing direct modification of nodal values without Lagrange multipliers.^[23] Background integration cells are often used for numerical quadrature due to the lack of element connectivity.^[24] Error analysis in meshfree methods establishes convergence through reproducing conditions and approximation bounds. The method reproduces polynomials up to order m if \sum_i N_i(\mathbf{x}) \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}_i) = \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}), ensuring consistency and stability.^[21] For smooth problems, the approximation error is O(h^{m+1}) in the L_2 norm, where h is the nodal spacing, leading to overall PDE solution convergence rates of O(h^m) in energy norms for Galerkin formulations.^[20] These rates depend on kernel order, nodal distribution regularity, and boundary enforcement, with numerical studies confirming optimal rates for uniform distributions but degradation near boundaries without enrichment.^[24]

Key Methods

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a pioneering meshfree method developed independently by Gingold and Monaghan in 1977 and Lucy in 1977 for simulating continuum mechanics, particularly in astrophysical contexts involving fluid dynamics.^[25] As a Lagrangian particle-based approach, SPH represents the continuum with a set of particles that carry properties such as mass, position, velocity, and density, evolving according to the equations of motion without relying on a fixed mesh. The core of the method lies in the interpolation of field variables using a smoothing kernel function W(\mathbf{r} - \mathbf{r}', h), where h is the smoothing length that defines the support domain of the kernel. The continuous form of this interpolation for a field A(\mathbf{r}) is given by

A(\mathbf{r}) = \int A(\mathbf{r}') W(\mathbf{r} - \mathbf{r}', h) \, d\mathbf{r}',

with the kernel satisfying normalization \int W(\mathbf{r} - \mathbf{r}', h) \, d\mathbf{r}' = 1 and compactness beyond $2h. In the discrete form, this becomes a summation over particles b:

A(\mathbf{r}_a) = \sum_b \frac{m_b}{\rho_b} A(\mathbf{r}_b) W(\mathbf{r}_a - \mathbf{r}_b, h),

where m_b and \rho_b are the mass and density of particle b, ensuring the approximation is Galilean invariant and suitable for hydrodynamic variables.^[26] The hydrodynamic equations in SPH are discretized accordingly, focusing on mass conservation via the continuity equation and momentum evolution. The continuity equation for the density of particle a is

\frac{d\rho_a}{dt} = \sum_b m_b (\mathbf{v}_a - \mathbf{v}_b) \cdot \nabla_a W_{ab},

where \mathbf{v} denotes velocity and W_{ab} = W(\mathbf{r}_a - \mathbf{r}_b, h), which maintains mass conservation in the Lagrangian framework. The momentum equation incorporates pressure and viscous terms:

\frac{d\mathbf{v}_a}{dt} = -\sum_b m_b \left( \frac{P_a}{\rho_a^2} + \frac{P_b}{\rho_b^2} + \Pi_{ab} \right) \nabla_a W_{ab},

with P as pressure and \Pi_{ab} as the artificial viscosity to handle shocks and prevent particle interpenetration. The artificial viscosity is typically formulated as \Pi_{ab} = \frac{-\alpha \bar{c}_{ab} \mu_{ab}}{\bar{\rho}_{ab}} + \beta \mu_{ab}^2 / \bar{\rho}_{ab}, where \mu_{ab} = h_{ab} (\mathbf{v}_a - \mathbf{v}_b) \cdot \hat{\mathbf{r}}_{ab} / (r_{ab}^2 + \epsilon h_{ab}^2), \bar{c}_{ab} is the average sound speed, and parameters \alpha \approx 1, \beta \approx 2 ensure stability in post-shock flows. This viscosity term, introduced by Monaghan and Gingold in 1983, provides numerical dissipation analogous to von Neumann-Richtmyer artificial viscosity in finite-difference methods, stabilizing simulations of discontinuous flows.^[27]^[26] A key feature of SPH is its purely meshfree nature, where particles naturally advect with the flow, carrying all hydrodynamic variables without connectivity constraints, making it ideal for problems with large deformations or free surfaces. It excels in simulating free-surface flows, such as wave propagation or droplet impact, due to the absence of mesh tangling and straightforward treatment of variable resolution via adaptive h. However, SPH suffers from limitations, including tensile instability, where particles under tension clump erroneously, leading to unphysical voids or fragmentation, as analyzed in elastic and fluid contexts. Boundary treatment also poses challenges, often requiring ghost particles or repulsive forces to enforce no-slip or free-slip conditions accurately, which can introduce inaccuracies near walls or interfaces.^[26]

Element-Free Galerkin Method (EFGM)

The Element-Free Galerkin Method (EFGM) is a meshfree variational formulation primarily applied to elastic and elastoplastic problems in solid mechanics, where the approximation is constructed using moving least squares (MLS) shape functions without requiring an underlying mesh. Introduced as an improvement over earlier smoothed particle methods, EFGM employs a Galerkin weak form discretized solely on a set of scattered nodes, enabling flexible nodal distributions and avoiding the connectivity constraints of finite elements. The MLS approximants ensure reproducibility of polynomial fields up to a specified order, providing a partition of unity property that guarantees conforming approximations and essential boundary condition enforcement through techniques like Lagrange multipliers or penalty methods.^[28] In the EFGM formulation for linear elasticity, the displacement field is approximated as \mathbf{u}^h(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_I N_I(\mathbf{x}) \mathbf{u}_I, where N_I(\mathbf{x}) are the MLS shape functions constructed from nodal values \mathbf{u}_I at nodes \mathbf{x}_I, and the support of each N_I is defined by a compact domain of influence. The MLS shape functions are derived by minimizing a weighted least-squares fit to a basis of polynomials, typically linear or quadratic, with a smooth weight function (e.g., cubic spline) to ensure continuity. Substituting into the Galerkin weak form yields the discrete system:

\int_{\Omega} \nabla N_I \cdot \mathbf{C} \cdot \nabla \left( \sum_J N_J \mathbf{u}_J \right) \, dV = \int_{\Omega} N_I \mathbf{b} \, dV + \int_{\Gamma_t} N_I \overline{\mathbf{t}} \, d\Gamma

for each test function N_I, where \mathbf{C} is the elasticity tensor, \mathbf{b} the body force, and \overline{\mathbf{t}} the traction on Neumann boundary \Gamma_t. Spatial integration is performed using background cells or nodal quadrature, and the resulting stiffness matrix is assembled node-wise without element connectivity. For elastoplastic extensions, the formulation incorporates a consistent tangent modulus in an incremental solution framework, maintaining meshfree discretization.^[28] Enrichment techniques in EFGM enhance accuracy near singularities such as cracks by augmenting the MLS basis with discontinuous or asymptotic fields while preserving the partition of unity. The visibility method clips the support domains of shape functions across crack surfaces, ensuring discontinuity in the approximation without nodal duplication, which is particularly effective for arbitrary crack geometries. To mitigate inaccuracies in blending regions near crack tips, the diffraction method modifies the enrichment by using a signed distance to the crack tip in the weight functions, yielding smoother transitions and improved convergence. These approaches, combined with the intrinsic partition of unity of MLS, allow EFGM to model complex fracture paths conformally. EFGM offers significant advantages in handling arbitrary crack growth in solids, as propagating discontinuities require no remeshing—only nodal updates or additions—reducing computational overhead in dynamic fracture simulations compared to traditional finite element methods. Enriched bases provide higher accuracy near discontinuities by capturing singular stress fields, with reported error reductions of up to 50% in stress intensity factors for benchmark crack problems relative to unenriched approximations. Hybrid formulations blending EFGM with finite elements partition the domain into meshfree regions near cracks and finite element regions elsewhere, leveraging EFGM's flexibility for singularities while retaining FEM efficiency in smooth areas through partition-of-unity compatible shape function transitions. Convergence of EFGM has been rigorously proven for both h-refinement (nodal spacing reduction) and p-refinement (basis order increase), achieving optimal rates of O(h^{m+1}) in the L_2 norm for polynomial degree m, as demonstrated in elliptic boundary value problems.

Advanced Techniques and Variations

Reproducing Kernel Particle Methods (RKPM)

Reproducing Kernel Particle Methods (RKPM) extend the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) framework by incorporating reproducing conditions that ensure polynomial consistency, thereby enhancing accuracy for both solid and fluid simulations. The core innovation lies in modifying the kernel function to satisfy these conditions, which reproduce polynomials up to a specified order exactly. This is achieved through a corrected kernel defined as W^*(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_i) = \mathbf{p}^T(\mathbf{x}) \mathbf{M}^{-1}(\mathbf{x}) \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}_i) W(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_i), where W is the original kernel, \mathbf{p} is the basis vector of monomials, and \mathbf{M}(\mathbf{x}) is the moment matrix given by \mathbf{M}(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_i \mathbf{p}(\mathbf{x}_i) \mathbf{p}^T(\mathbf{x}_i) W(\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}_i). This formulation, introduced by Liu et al., allows RKPM to achieve higher-order accuracy without relying on nodal enrichment techniques.^[14] Unlike SPH, which suffers from boundary deficiencies due to incomplete kernel support near domain edges and limited low-order polynomial accuracy, RKPM eliminates these issues by enforcing the reproducing conditions globally, ensuring consistent approximations even at boundaries without additional enrichment. This makes RKPM particularly suitable for problems involving complex geometries or large deformations. In solid mechanics applications, RKPM excels in stress analysis of beams and plates, providing more accurate stress distributions compared to SPH by correcting kernel approximations near supports and free edges. Boundary corrections are often implemented using window functions that adjust the kernel support to conform to the domain, improving enforcement of essential boundary conditions via methods like penalty formulations or Lagrange multipliers.^[29] Implementation of RKPM typically employs a Galerkin discretization, analogous to the Element-Free Galerkin Method (EFGM) but utilizing reproducing kernel shape functions derived from the corrected kernels for trial and test functions. These shape functions enable stable weak-form solutions for partial differential equations in solids and fluids. RKPM has been applied to simulations of explosive loading scenarios, such as underwater explosions and high-velocity impacts on structures, where its ability to handle large deformations and shock waves without mesh distortion proves advantageous; for instance, in modeling structural damage from near-field blasts, RKPM coupled with SPH captures fragment trajectories and material failure with reduced numerical dissipation. Local variants of RKPM can integrate with Petrov-Galerkin frameworks, as explored in meshfree local methods.^[29]^[30]

Meshfree Local Petrov-Galerkin Methods (MLPG)

The Meshfree Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method represents a flexible meshless framework that formulates boundary value problems locally over small support domains surrounding scattered nodes, avoiding the need for a global mesh or element connectivity. Introduced by Atluri and Zhu in 1998, it employs a Petrov-Galerkin approach where trial and test functions are selected independently to enhance numerical stability and efficiency in solving partial differential equations.^[31] This local discretization enables the method to handle complex geometries and large deformations without mesh distortion issues common in finite element methods. The core formulation of MLPG derives from the weighted residual method applied to a local subdomain L_q associated with each node, leading to the weak form

\int_{L_q} q(\mathbf{x}) L(u^h(\mathbf{x}) - u^*(\mathbf{x})) \, dL_q = 0,

where u^h(\mathbf{x}) is the trial approximation constructed via moving least squares (MLS) interpolation, u^*(\mathbf{x}) is a sufficiently smooth source function satisfying the governing equation L u^* = f, L is the differential operator of the PDE, and q(\mathbf{x}) is the test function with compact support.^[31] The choice of test function q distinguishes MLPG variants: setting q = 1 yields a collocation-like scheme; a Heaviside step function q = H(L_q - L_i) (where L_i is the distance from node i) produces a symmetric weak form; while Gaussian or exponential functions introduce Petrov-Galerkin asymmetry for improved conditioning.^[32] These local integrals are evaluated numerically without requiring background cells, using quadrature over overlapping subdomains, often after integration by parts to shift derivatives to boundary terms. A primary advantage of MLPG is the elimination of shape function derivatives in the stiffness matrix assembly, as the weak form incorporates boundary integrals of the source function rather than volume derivatives of the trial functions, significantly reducing computational cost compared to global Galerkin methods.^[31] Additionally, the inherent locality fosters adaptivity, allowing refined nodal distributions in multifield problems like coupled mechanics without global reassembly, and supports irregular node placements for inherent robustness in heterogeneous materials. MLPG exhibits variations based on the weak form and function choices, notably MLPG1, which uses the symmetric local symmetric weak form (LSWF) with Heaviside test functions to generate a positive-definite stiffness matrix, and MLPG2 (or MLPG5 in some notations), which employs unsymmetric forms like the local boundary weak form (LBWF) for simpler boundary enforcement but potentially ill-conditioned matrices.^[32] Further enhancements integrate Trefftz bases as trial functions, which satisfy the homogeneous governing equation pointwise within each subdomain, enabling exact interior solutions in homogeneous domains while enforcing boundary conditions locally to achieve high accuracy with fewer nodes.^[33] In specific applications, MLPG excels in coupled thermo-mechanical problems, where it discretizes heat conduction and elasticity equations over shared local domains to capture thermal stresses in materials like alloys during solidification, demonstrating convergence rates superior to finite elements in benchmark tests.^[34] For thin structures, boundary-only MLPG formulations—leveraging the local boundary integral equation—reduce dimensionality by integrating solely over boundaries, efficiently analyzing vibrations and buckling in plates without interior sampling.

Applications

In Solid Mechanics and Fracture

Meshfree methods have found significant application in solid mechanics for modeling complex deformation behaviors, including hyperelastic materials, plasticity, and contact interactions. In hyperelastic simulations, these methods enable accurate analysis of large deformations without mesh distortion, as demonstrated in strong-form formulations for plane stress and strain conditions. For elasto-plastic contact problems, meshfree approaches handle large deformations and frictional interactions effectively, providing robust solutions for quasi-static and dynamic scenarios. These capabilities stem from the methods' ability to approximate fields using scattered nodes, avoiding the remeshing required in traditional finite element methods (FEM) for severe distortions. In fracture mechanics, meshfree methods excel at handling discontinuities inherent to crack propagation. The Element-Free Galerkin Method (EFGM), for instance, facilitates Mode I crack propagation analysis through the evaluation of the J-integral, which quantifies the energy release rate at the crack tip, allowing for precise prediction of crack growth in elastic and dynamic settings. Fracture modeling benefits from enriched node strategies, where visibility or diffraction enrichments are applied to nodes near the crack to capture discontinuous fields without explicit crack tracking. A notable variant is peridynamics, a non-local meshfree framework that models damage through bond-breaking criteria, where material bonds fail when stretch exceeds a critical threshold, enabling natural simulation of crack initiation and propagation in brittle materials. Case studies highlight the practical advantages of meshfree methods in solid mechanics and fracture. In ballistic impact simulations on concrete structures, the Element-Free Galerkin (EFG) method has shown superior performance in capturing strain localization compared to FEM in predicting damage zones and debris patterns under high-velocity loading.^[35] Biomedical applications, such as bone fracture modeling, leverage meshfree techniques to simulate complex geometries and adaptive crack paths in heterogeneous tissues, aiding in the design of implants and injury risk assessments. Despite these strengths, challenges persist in enforcing essential boundary conditions, which can introduce stiffness errors due to the non-interpolatory nature of meshfree approximations. These errors, often manifesting as overly stiff responses, are mitigated through corrected shape functions that ensure consistency and partition-of-unity properties, improving accuracy in boundary-dominated problems.

In Fluid Dynamics and Multiphysics

Meshfree methods, particularly smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), have been extensively applied to fluid dynamics simulations due to their Lagrangian nature, which naturally handles large deformations and free surfaces without mesh distortion. In modeling incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, SPH formulations incorporate projection-based techniques to enforce incompressibility, often augmented by the XSPH velocity correction to mitigate tensile instabilities and improve particle stability in high-strain flows.^[36]^[37] The XSPH approach modifies particle velocities by averaging with neighboring particles, reducing artificial clustering while preserving momentum conservation.^[36] A key advantage in fluid dynamics lies in free-surface tracking, where SPH excels in capturing complex interfacial dynamics without explicit interface reconstruction. For instance, SPH simulations of sloshing in tanks under oscillatory excitation accurately reproduce wave breaking and impact pressures, validating against experimental data on pressure distributions and free-surface elevations.^[38] Similarly, droplet impact problems, such as liquid drops colliding with solid surfaces, demonstrate SPH's ability to model splashing, rim formation, and ejecta sheets, with particle-based advection ensuring conservation of mass across the evolving interface.^[39] In multiphysics applications, meshfree methods facilitate fluid-structure interaction (FSI) through partitioned coupling schemes, where fluid and structure solvers exchange interface data iteratively to achieve convergence. These approaches are particularly suited for problems involving deformable boundaries, such as blood flow in arteries, where hybrids of reproducing kernel particle methods (RKPM) for the elastic vessel walls and SPH for the fluid enable coupled simulations of pulsatile flow and wall deformation under physiological pressures.^[40]^[41] The partitioned strategy allows independent time-stepping for each domain, improving computational efficiency while capturing two-way coupling effects like flow-induced stresses on compliant structures.^[40] Representative examples highlight the efficiency and accuracy of meshfree methods in challenging scenarios. In high-speed water entry problems, such as wedges or cylinders penetrating fluid at velocities exceeding 10 m/s, SPH reduces computational costs compared to Eulerian grid-based methods, owing to adaptive particle resolution near the cavity interface and avoidance of mesh tangling in violent free-surface motions.^[42] For plasma simulations involving electromagnetic coupling, SPH extended to magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models pinch plasmas in X-pinch configurations, resolving current-sheet formation and radiative collapse with coupled Lorentz forces and resistive effects, validated against experimental pinch dynamics.^[43] Despite these strengths, meshfree methods face limitations in fluid applications, notably particle clustering in shear-dominated flows, which can lead to unphysical density accumulations and reduced accuracy. This issue is addressed through normalized kernel functions that maintain consistent particle spacing by renormalizing the smoothing length, or by introducing a transport velocity that shifts particles relative to the fluid velocity to counteract advection errors in boundary layers.^[44]^[45]

Developments and Challenges

Historical Evolution

The evolution of meshfree methods in the 2000s marked a significant shift toward practical implementation and theoretical refinement, building on foundational work from the late 1990s such as the element-free Galerkin (EFG) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) approaches.^[46] Key advancements included the development of stabilized conforming nodal integration (SCNI) in 2001, which addressed tensile instability issues in earlier formulations by ensuring variationally consistent approximations without relying on background meshes. This period also saw the rise of peridynamics, a nonlocal meshfree framework introduced by Stewart Silling in 2000 to handle discontinuities and long-range forces through integral equations rather than partial differentials, enabling natural modeling of fracture without special crack-tracking techniques.^[15] Peridynamics was expanded in 2005 with a comprehensive meshfree implementation for solid mechanics, incorporating bond-based models that gained traction for dynamic fracture simulations by the late 2000s. Integration into commercial software began emerging, with user-defined elements and subroutines allowing meshfree implementations in codes like ABAQUS for large deformation problems, as demonstrated in early 2000s studies on nonlinear analyses.^[47] Prominent contributions came from key researchers, including Satya Atluri, who advanced the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method throughout the 2000s with extensions to convection-diffusion and elastodynamic problems using local weak forms for improved boundary handling and stability.^[48] Atluri's group emphasized MLPG's versatility for multiphysics simulations, publishing seminal works on its application to incompressible flows and contact problems.^[49] Similarly, Ted Belytschko's team at Northwestern University focused on enrichment strategies within EFG methods from 2000 to 2010, developing partition-of-unity enrichments to capture singularities and interfaces without mesh distortion, as seen in fracture mechanics applications.^[50] These efforts were disseminated through dedicated conferences, such as the International Workshop on Meshfree Methods in Bonn, Germany (2001), and sessions at the USACM's U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM) series starting in 2001, which fostered collaboration and highlighted paradigm shifts toward hybrid and nonlocal formulations.^[51] Early literature often overlooked peridynamics and MLPG variants until the mid-2000s, reflecting a gradual recognition of their potential beyond traditional SPH and EFG.^[52] By the mid-2010s, meshfree methods evolved further with hybrid approaches combining meshfree and finite element methods (FEM) to leverage computational efficiency, such as coupling EFG with FEM for localized enrichments in regions of high gradients while using FEM elsewhere for cost savings.^[53] These hybrids, developed prominently around 2010-2015, addressed scalability issues in pure meshfree simulations through techniques like variationally consistent integration (VCI) and semi-Lagrangian reproducing kernel formulations for large deformations. Open-source tools also proliferated, exemplified by PySPH, a Python-based framework for SPH released in its initial stable version in 2012, enabling accessible implementation of particle methods with support for parallel computing and multiphysics extensions.^[54] This era solidified meshfree methods' role in overcoming mesh-related limitations, paving the way for broader adoption in engineering simulations up to 2015.^[46]

Recent Advances and Future Directions

Since 2015, significant computational enhancements have propelled meshfree methods forward, particularly through hardware acceleration and optimized integration schemes. In smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), the open-source DualSPHysics framework has incorporated GPU acceleration, enabling simulations of free-surface flows with speedups of up to 10 times compared to CPU-based implementations for large particle counts, as demonstrated in coastal engineering applications like wave-structure interactions.^[55] Similarly, the naturally stabilized nodal integration (NSNI) technique for Galerkin meshfree methods achieved up to 20-fold efficiency gains without additional stabilization parameters, improving convergence in large-deformation problems.^[46] These advances have facilitated broader adoption in high-fidelity simulations requiring millions of nodes. Integration of machine learning (ML) has emerged as a key trend in the 2020s, enhancing node placement, stencil selection, and error estimation in meshfree approximations. For instance, ML-based surrogate models have been developed to accelerate meshless computations by approximating kernel evaluations, reducing overall processing time while maintaining accuracy in partial differential equation solvers.^[56] In stencil evaluation, neural networks trained on diverse node distributions have improved operator approximations in collocation methods, addressing irregularities in point clouds for better stability in dynamic simulations.^[57] A 2024 state-of-the-art review highlights how such ML aids have refined uncertainty quantification in fracture problems, enabling adaptive refinements that cut error estimates by 15-30% in brittle material analyses.^[58] Non-local extensions have advanced meshfree capabilities for complex material behaviors, notably through state-based peridynamics tailored for plasticity. A 2016 ordinary state-based peridynamic model incorporating von Mises yield criteria and isotropic hardening accurately captured plastic deformation in metals under dynamic loading, outperforming local continuum models in predicting localization without mesh distortion issues.^[59] Complementing this, isogeometric meshfree approaches have improved CAD integration since 2019, using immersed B-rep models and enriched basis functions to enable seamless geometry-to-simulation workflows, reducing preprocessing time for topology optimization in structural design.^[60] These developments extend to sustainability applications, such as element-free Galerkin methods for modeling CO2-brine flows in porous media, supporting carbon sequestration simulations with high fidelity to heterogeneous subsurface geometries.^[61] Looking ahead, future directions emphasize hybrid paradigms and emerging computational frontiers as of 2025. Quantum-inspired meshfree frameworks, such as the multi-partitioned quantum finite particle method, promise logarithmic scaling in multiscale problems by leveraging quantum-classical hybrids for wave propagation in heterogeneous media, potentially revolutionizing nanoscale-to-macro simulations in materials science.^[62] AI-hybrid methods, like the neural-integrated meshfree (NIM) approach, integrate deep networks to surrogate fine-scale physics, reducing degrees of freedom by 30-50% in elastodynamics while preserving accuracy through differentiable programming.^[63] However, challenges persist in achieving real-time performance for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, where meshfree nonlinear multibody simulations demand further optimizations to handle interactive structural deformations without latency, as explored in VR-based engineering training tools.^[64] Ongoing open-source efforts, including DualSPHysics updates continuing through 2025 (v5.4.3, March 2025), continue to democratize these methods for multiphysics problems like climate-related fluid modeling.^[65]

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