  Based on the radial basis function (RBF), non-singular general solution and
dual reciprocity method (DRM), this paper presents an inherently meshless,
integration-free, boundary-only RBF collocation techniques for numerical
solution of various partial differential equation systems. The basic ideas
behind this methodology are very mathematically simple. In this study, the RBFs
are employed to approximate the inhomogeneous terms via the DRM, while
non-singular general solution leads to a boundary-only RBF formulation for
homogenous solution. The present scheme is named as the boundary knot method
(BKM) to differentiate it from the other numerical techniques. In particular,
due to the use of nonsingular general solutions rather than singular
fundamental solutions, the BKM is different from the method of fundamental
solution in that the former does no require the artificial boundary and results
in the symmetric system equations under certain conditions. The efficiency and
utility of this new technique are validated through a number of typical
numerical examples. Completeness concern of the BKM due to the only use of
non-singular part of complete fundamental solution is also discussed.
