Many scientific phenomena are now investigated by complex computer models or codes A computer experiment is a number of runs of the code with various inputs A feature of many computer experiments is that the output is deterministic--rerunning the code with the same inputs gives identical observations Often, the codes are computationally expensive to run, and a common objective of an experiment is to fit a cheaper predictor of the output to the data Our approach is to model the deterministic output as the realization of a stochastic process, thereby providing a statistical basis for designing experiments (choosing the inputs) for efficient prediction With this model, estimates of uncertainty of predictions are also available Recent work in this area is reviewed, a number of applications are discussed, and we demonstrate our methodology with an example

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The design and analysis of computer experiments

An element-free Galerkin method which is applicable to arbitrary shapes but requires only nodal data is applied to elasticity and heat conduction problems. In this method, moving least-squares interpolants are used to construct the trial and test functions for the variational principle (weak form); the dependent variable and its gradient are continuous in the entire domain. In contrast to an earlier formulation by Nayroles and coworkers, certain key differences are introduced in the implementation to increase its accuracy. The numerical examples in this paper show that with these modifications, the method does not exhibit any volumetric locking, the rate of convergence can exceed that of finite elements significantly and a high resolution of localized steep gradients can be achieved. The moving least-squares interpolants and the choices of the weight function are also discussed in this paper.

Element‐free Galerkin methods

A minimal remeshing finite element method for crack growth is presented. Discontinuous enrichment functions are added to the finite element approximation to account for the presence of the crack. This method allows the crack to be arbitrarily aligned within the mesh. For severely curved cracks, remeshing may be needed but only away from the crack tip where remeshing is much easier. Results are presented for a wide range of two-dimensional crack problems showing excellent accuracy. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Elastic crack growth in finite elements with minimal remeshing

Meshless methods: An overview and recent developments

A new continuous reproducing kernel interpolation function which explores the attractive features of the flexible time-frequency and space-wave number localization of a window function is developed. This method is motivated by the theory of wavelets and also has the desirable attributes of the recently proposed smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods, moving least squares methods (MLSM), diffuse element methods (DEM) and element-free Galerkin methods (EFGM). The proposed method maintains the advantages of the free Lagrange or SPH methods; however, because of the addition of a correction function, it gives much more accurate results. Therefore it is called the reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM). In computer implementation RKPM is shown to be more efficient than DEM and EFGM. Moreover, if the window function is C∞, the solution and its derivatives are also C∞ in the entire domain. Theoretical analysis and numerical experiments on the 1D diffusion equation reveal the stability conditions and the effect of the dilation parameter on the unusually high convergence rates of the proposed method. Two-dimensional examples of advection-diffusion equations and compressible Euler equations are also presented together with 2D multiple-scale decompositions.

Y. Y. Lu

Papers

Element‐free Galerkin methods

A new implementation of the element free Galerkin method

Element-free galerkin methods for static and dynamic fracture

Element-free Galerkin method for wave propagation and dynamic fracture

Explicit multi-time step integration for first and second order finite element semidiscretizations