Indirect Trefftz method for boundary value problem of Poisson equation

Trefftz method is the boundary-type solution procedure using regular T-complete functions satisfying the governing equation. Until now, it has been mainly applied to numerical analyses of the problems governed with the homogeneous differential equations such as the two- and three-dimensional Laplace problems and the two-dimensional elastic problem without body forces. On the other hand, this paper describes the application of the indirect Trefftz method to the solution of the boundary value problems of the two-dimensional Poisson equation. Since the Poisson equation has an inhomogeneous term, it is generally difficult to determine the T-complete function satisfying the governing equation. In this paper, the inhomogeneous term containing an unknown function is approximated by a polynomial in the Cartesian coordinates to determine the particular solutions related to the inhomogeneous term. Then, the boundary value problem of the Poisson equation is transformed to that of the Laplace equation by using the particular solution. Once the boundary value problem of the Poisson equation is solved according to the ordinary Trefftz formulation, the solution of the boundary value problem of the Poisson equation is estimated from the solution of the Laplace equation and the particular solution. The unknown parameters included in the particular solution are determined by the iterative process. The present scheme is applied to some examples in order to examine the numerical properties. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.