If Meshless Methods have high tendencies and potentials to replace the use of Finite Element Methods, why have they not been so popular in applications ?
I don't think in total there is no mesh for doing the analysis. meshless method is not so popular because it can't be used in loading area. in most of the literature on meshless technique is used at the outer boundary of the loading areas. It indicates that still finer mesh with proper elements compatibility could be used in closer to loading regions and only in outer unloading boundary meshless used. But, i feel for structural engineering kind of problem we may think for meshless techniques. However, for geotechnical engineering kind of problem still FEM is more popular and reasons explained elsewhere in literature. ok all the best..
I have been analyzing solid, fracture and damage mechanics problems by meshless method formulations. We have developed several routines of linear and nonlinear analyses by meshless basis. It requires a huge amount of programming in Matlab. Since FEM is a standard discretization technique and most of the available commercial software programs are based on FEM, users prefer to implement their model by FEM. I think that FEM possesses some restrictions to analyse demanding problems, in some cases it requires to implement their own code and run in ABAQUS for instance. But in Meshless method, it is possible to establish the formulations from beginning to the end based on the corresponding theory. However, meshless methods necessitate the users to be familiar with programming and most importantly dominant on the physical meaning of the analysed model.