Fast Radial Basis Functions for Engineering Applications

This book presents the first "How To" guide to the use of radial basis functions (RBF). It provides a clear vision of their potential, an overview of ready-for-use computational tools and precise guidelines to implement new engineering applications of RBF. Radial basis functions (RBF) are a mathematical tool mature enough for useful engineering applications. Their mathematical foundation is well established and the tool has proven to be effective in many fields, as the mathematical framework can be adapted in several ways. A candidate application can be faced considering the features of RBF: multidimensional space (including 2D and 3D), numerous radial functions available, global and compact support, interpolation/regression. This great flexibility makes RBF attractive - and their great potential has only been partially discovered. This is because of the difficulty in taking a first step toward RBF as they are not commonly part of engineers' cultural background, but also due to the numerical complexity of RBF problems that scales up very quickly with the number of RBF centers. Fast RBF algorithms are available to alleviate this and high-performance computing (HPC) can provide further aid. Nevertheless, a consolidated tradition in using RBF in engineering applications is still missing and the beginner can be confused by the literature, which in many cases is presented with language and symbolisms familiar to mathematicians but which can be cryptic for engineers.