No abstract

Meshfree methods are always the alternatives to be considered besides the finite element method in dealing with complex engineering problems. Among these complex problems, there are problems where discontinuities or high gradients may only emerge at a small region of a domain and the remaining parts of the domain are smooth and continuous. In this case, adding nodes to the critical region is essential for the better accuracy of solutions. It would be effective if a meshfree method is applied to the critical region and a mesh-based method is employed to solve the remaining part of the domain since node refinement is easier for a meshfree method whereas a mesh-based method is simple to develop and capable of producing accurate solutions for smooth regions. In this study, the finite cloud method (FCM) is coupled with the finite volume method (FVM) such that node refinement only takes place at the region where the FCM is applied. A handshaking approach is proposed to enforce the continuity near the interface where both methods are applied. Numerical examples and computation methods are presented in this paper and the numerical results are examined.