4. Conclusions
In this paper, a new boundary-type meshfree method, termed average source method (ASM), is proposed to solve 2D Laplace problems. This method is based on coupling the RBIEs and the AST, which has the following key features: 1. The proposed ASM develops a new strategy to analytically compute diagonal coefficients of influence matrices, which are weakly singular or strongly singular, so that the problem can be solved only once, unlike the foregoing MFSbased type methods that apply a known solution to determine such diagonal coefficients, thereby doubling the solution procedure. This is an essentially crucial but very dif- ficult issue for the boundary-type collocation schemes, and therefore great advance has been achieved by present work in this area. 2. Due to the using of the AST, the proposed ASM is a truly boundary-node method without involving any element or integration concept, unlike the aforementioned MLS-based methods that introduce the MLS-based meshless shape functions constructed elaborately into BIE to exploit the meshless attribute of MLS approximation, and but still need the calculation of boundary integrals. It is worth noting that this is a general methodology and also readily applicable to other or even singular BIEs. Some applications of the AST to other BIEs are already underway and will be reported in some subsequent papers.