This volume collects selected papers presented at the Ninth International Workshop on Meshfree Methods held in Bonn, Germany in September 2017. They address various aspects of this very active research field and cover topics from applied mathematics, physics and engineering. The numerical treatment of partial differential equations with meshfree discretization techniques has been a very active research area in recent years. While the fundamental theory of meshfree methods has been developed and considerable advances of the various methods have been made, many challenges in the mathematical analysis and practical implementation of meshfree methods remain. This symposium aims to promote collaboration among engineers, mathematicians, and computer scientists and industrial researchers to address the development, mathematical analysis, and application of meshfree and particle methods especially to multiscale phenomena. It continues the 2-year-cycled Workshops on Meshfree Methods for Partial Differential Equations.

Meshfree methods for the solution of partial differential equations gained much attention in recent years, not only in the engineering but also in the mathematics community. One of the reasons for this development is the fact that meshfree discretizations and particle models are often better suited to cope with geometric changes of the domain of interest, e.g. free surfaces and large deformations, than classical discretization techniques such as finite differences, finite elements or finite volumes. Another obvious advantage of meshfree discretizations is their independence of a mesh so that the costs of mesh generation are eliminated. Also, the treatment of time-dependent PDEs from a Lagrangian point of view and the coupling of particle models and continuous models gained enormous interest in recent years from a theoretical as well as from a practial point of view. This volume consists of articles which address the different meshfree methods (SPH, PUM, GFEM, EFGM, RKPM etc.) and their application in applied mathematics, physics and engineering.

This volume collects selected papers presented at the Ninth International Workshop on Meshfree Methods held in Bonn, Germany in September 2017. They address various aspects of this very active research field and cover topics from applied mathematics, physics and engineering. The numerical treatment of partial differential equations with meshfree discretization techniques has been a very active research area in recent years. While the fundamental theory of meshfree methods has been developed and considerable advances of the various methods have been made, many challenges in the mathematical analysis and practical implementation of meshfree methods remain. This symposium aims to promote collaboration among engineers, mathematicians, and computer scientists and industrial researchers to address the development, mathematical analysis, and application of meshfree and particle methods especially to multiscale phenomena. It continues the 2-year-cycled Workshops on Meshfree Methods for Partial Differential Equations.

Meshfree methods for the numerical solution of partial differential equations are becoming more and more mainstream in many areas of applications. This volume represents the state-of-the-art in meshfree methods. It consists of articles which address the different meshfree techniques, their mathematical properties and their application in applied mathematics, physics and engineering.

The finite difference method (FDM) hasbeen used tosolve differential equation systems for centuries. The FDM works well for problems of simple geometry and was widely used before the invention of the much more efficient, robust finite element method (FEM). FEM is now widely used in handling problems with complex geometry. Currently, we are using and developing even more powerful numerical techniques aiming to obtain more accurate approximate solutions in a more convenient manner for even more complex systems. The meshfree or meshless method is one such phenomenal development in the past decade, and is the subject of this book. There are many MFree methods proposed so far for different applications. Currently, three monographs on MFree methods have been published. Mesh Free Methods, Moving Beyond the Finite Element Method d by GR Liu (2002) provides a systematic discussion on basic theories, fundamentals for MFree methods, especially on MFree weak-form methods. It provides a comprehensive record of well-known MFree methods and the wide coverage of applications of MFree methods to problems of solids mechanics (solids, beams, plates, shells, etc.) as well as fluid mechanics. The Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) Method d by Atluri and Shen (2002) provides detailed discussions of the meshfree local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method and itsvariations. Formulations and applications of MLPG are well addressed in their book.

A gentle introduction to advanced topics such as parallel computing, multigrid methods, and special methods for systems of PDEs. The goal of all chapters is to ‘compute’ solutions to problems, hence algorithmic and software issues play a central role. All software examples use the Diffpack programming environment - some experience with Diffpack is required. There are also some chapters covering complete applications, i.e., the way from a model, expressed as systems of PDEs, through to discretization methods, algorithms, software design, verification, and computational examples. Suitable for readers with a background in basic finite element and finite difference methods for partial differential equations.

Meshfree approximation methods are a relatively new area of research. This book provides the salient theoretical results needed for a basic understanding of meshfree approximation methods. It places emphasis on a hands-on approach that includes MATLAB routines for all basic operations.