LAUSR

Abstract This paper develops an element-free Galerkin scaled boundary method (EFG-SBM) for solving steady heat conduction problems, in which the circumferential direction is constructed by the moving Kriging (MK) interpolation based on the EFG approach. Because the MK interpolation satisfies the Kronecker delta property, it is more convenient in enforcing the essential boundary conditions than the traditional MLS-based EFG-SBM. As a newly boundary-type meshless method, EFG-SBM possesses advantages of EFG and scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). This method inherits the semi-analytical property of SBFEM by introducing the normalized radial coordinate system, in which the governing differential equations are weakened in the circumferential direction and solved analytically in the radial direction. Unlike the traditional SBFEM, the preprocessing and postprocessing processes of EFG-SBM are simplified and the more accuracy can be obtained because of higher continuity of the MK shape functions. Computation of EFG-SBM can be reduced since only the boundary needs to be discretized compared with the EFG approach. This proposed method is verified via four heat conduction examples including problems with thermal crack considering the prescribed heat flux and temperature on the side-face and unbounded domain. The numerical solutions show that EFG-SBM has higher accuracy and better convergence than the traditional SBFEM. An accurate smooth heat flux can be obtained directly without necessity of using the recovery procedure.