An effective high-order five-point stencil, based on integrated-RBF approximations, for the first biharmonic equation and its applications in fluid dynamics

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a new discretisation scheme, based on equation-coupled approach and high-order five-point integrated radial basis function (IRBF) approximations, for solving the first biharmonic equation, and its applications in fluid dynamics. Design/methodology/approach The first biharmonic equation, which can be defined in a rectangular or non-rectangular domain, is replaced by two Poisson equations. The field variables are approximated on overlapping local regions of only five grid points, where the IRBF approximations are constructed to include nodal values of not only the field variables but also their second-order derivatives and higher-order ones along the grid lines. In computing the Dirichlet boundary condition for an intermediate variable, the integration constants are used to incorporate the boundary values of the first-order derivative into the boundary IRBF approximation. Findings These proposed IRBF approximations on the stencil and on the boundary enable the boundary values of the derivative to be exactly imposed, and the IRBF solution to be much more accurate and not influenced much by the RBF width. The error is reduced at a rate that is much greater than four. In fluid dynamics applications, the method is able to capture well the structure of steady highly non-linear fluid flows using relatively coarse grids. Originality/value The main contribution of this study lies in the development of an effective high-order five-point stencil based on IRBFs for solving the first biharmonic equation in a coupled set of two Poisson equations. A fast rate of convergence (up to 11) is achieved.