Gaussian radial basis functions method for linear and nonlinear convection–diffusion models in physical phenomena

Abstract In this study, we propose a simple direct meshless scheme based on the Gaussian radial basis function for the one-dimensional linear and nonlinear convection–diffusion problems, which frequently occur in physical phenomena. This is fulfilled by constructing a simple ‘anisotropic’ space–time Gaussian radial basis function. According to the proposed scheme, there is no need to remove time-dependent variables during the whole solution process, which leads it to a really meshless method. The suggested meshless method is implemented to the challenging convection–diffusion problems in a direct way with ease. Numerical results show that the proposed meshless method is simple, accurate, stable, easy-to-program and efficient for both linear and nonlinear convection–diffusion equation with different values of Péclet number. To assess the accuracy absolute error, average absolute error and root-mean-square error are used.