Semi-analytic treatment of the three-dimensional Poisson equation via a Galerkin BIE method

A systematic treatment of the three-dimensional Poisson equation via singular and hypersingular boundary integral equation techniques is investigated in the context of a Galerkin approximation. Developed to conveniently deal with domain integrals without a volume-fitted mesh, the proposed method initially converts domain integrals featuring the Newton potential and its gradient into equivalent surface integrals. Then, the resulting boundary integrals are evaluated by means of well-established cubature methods. In this transformation, weakly-singular domain integrals, defined over simply- or multiply-connected domains with Lipschitz boundaries, are rigorously converted into weakly-singular surface integrals. Combined with the semi-analytic integration approach developed for potential problems to accurately calculate singular and hypersingular Galerkin surface integrals, this technique can be employed to effectively deal with mixed boundary-value problems without the need to partition the underlying domain into volume cells. Sample problems are included to validate the proposed approach.     

Semi-analytic integration of hypersingular Galerkin BIEs for three-dimensional potential problems

An accurate and efficient semi-analytic integration technique is developed for three-dimensional hypersingular boundary integral equations of potential theory. Investigated in the context of a Galerkin approach, surface integrals are defined as limits to the boundary and linear surface elements are employed to approximate the geometry and field variables on the boundary. In the inner integration procedure, all singular and non-singular integrals over a triangular boundary element are expressed exactly as analytic formulae over the edges of the integration triangle. In the outer integration scheme, closed-form expressions are obtained for the coincident case, wherein the divergent terms are identified explicitly and are shown to cancel with corresponding terms from the edge-adjacent case. The remaining surface integrals, containing only weak singularities, are carried out successfully by use of standard numerical cubatures. Sample problems are included to illustrate the performance and validity of the proposed algorithm.     

Explicit expressions for three-dimensional boundary integrals in linear elasticity

On employing isoparametric, piecewise linear shape functions over a flat triangle, exact formulae are derived for all surface potentials involved in the numerical treatment of three-dimensional singular and hyper-singular boundary integral equations in linear elasticity. These formulae are valid for an arbitrary source point in space and are represented as analytical expressions along the edges of the integration triangle. They can be employed to solve integral equations defined on triangulated surfaces via a collocation method or may be utilized as analytical expressions for the inner integrals in a Galerkin technique. A numerical example involving a unit triangle and a source point located at various distances above it, as well as sample problems solved by a collocation boundary element method for the Lamé equation are included to validate the proposed formulae.     

Integration of singular Galerkin-type boundary element integrals for 3D elasticity problems

Summary. A Galerkin approximation of both strongly and hypersingular boundary integral equation (BIE) is considered for the solution of a mixed boundary value problem in 3D elasticity leading to a symmetric system of linear equations. The evaluation of Cauchy principal values (v. p.) and finite parts (p. f.) of double integrals is one of the most difficult parts within the implementation of such boundary element methods (BEMs). A new integration method, which is strictly derived for the cases of coincident elements as well as edge-adjacent and vertex-adjacent elements, leads to explicitly given regular integrand functions which can be integrated by the standard Gauss-Legendre and Gauss-Jacobi quadrature rules. Problems of a wide range of integral kernels on curved surfaces can be treated by this integration method. We give estimates of the quadrature errors of the singular four-dimensional integrals. Received June 25, 1995 / Revised version received January 29, 1996     

Hybrid Galerkin boundary elements: theory and implementation

Summary. In this paper we present a new quadrature method for computing Galerkin stiffness matrices arising from the discretisation of 3D boundary integral equations using continuous piecewise linear boundary elements. This rule takes as points some subset of the nodes of the mesh and can be used for computing non-singular Galerkin integrals corresponding to pairs of basis functions with non-intersecting supports. When this new rule is combined with standard methods for the singular Galerkin integrals we obtain a “hybrid” Galerkin method which has the same stability and asymptotic convergence properties as the true Galerkin method but a complexity more akin to that of a collocation or Nystr?m method. The method can be applied to a wide range of singular and weakly-singular first- and second-kind equations, including many for which the classical Nystr?m method is not even defined. The results apply to equations on piecewise-smooth Lipschitz boundaries, and to non-quasiuniform (but shape-regular) meshes. A by-product of the analysis is a stability theory for quadrature rules of precision 1 and 2 based on arbitrary points in the plane. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the new method realises the performance expected from the theory. Received January 22, 1998 / Revised version received May 26, 1999 / Published online April 20, 2000 –? Springer-Verlag 2000     

A class of quasilinear degenerate elliptic problems

We establish the existence of solutions for a class of quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations. The equations in this class satisfy a structure condition which provides ellipticity in the interior of the domain, and degeneracy only on the boundary. Equations of transonic gas dynamics, for example, satisfy this property in the region of subsonic flow and are degenerate across the sonic surface. We prove that the solution is smooth in the interior of the domain but may exhibit singular behavior at the degenerate boundary. The maximal rate of blow-up at the degenerate boundary is bounded by the “degree of degeneracy” in the principal coefficients of the quasilinear elliptic operator. Our methods and results apply to the problems recently studied by several authors which include the unsteady transonic small disturbance equation, the pressure-gradient equations of the compressible Euler equations, and the singular quasilinear anisotropic elliptic problems, and extend to the class of equations which satisfy the structure condition, such as the shallow water equation, compressible isentropic two-dimensional Euler equations, and general two-dimensional nonlinear wave equations. Our study provides a general framework to analyze degenerate elliptic problems arising in the self-similar reduction of a broad class of two-dimensional Cauchy problems.     

位势问题边界元法中几乎奇异积分的正则化

将一种通用算法应用于平面位势问题边界元法中近边界点几乎奇异积分的正则化。对线性单元,位势问题近边界点的几乎强和超奇异积分可归纳为两种形式。通过分部积分,将引起奇异的积分元素变换到积分号之外,从而对这两种积分分别给出了无奇异的正则化计算公式。除了线性元,二次元也应用于该算法。与近边界点临近的二次单元划分为两段线性单元,该算法仍然适用。算例证明了方法的有效性和精确性。对曲线边界问题,联合二次元和线性元可提高计算结果精确度。     

A Burton-Miller boundary element-free method for Helmholtz problems

A Burton-Miller boundary element-free method is developed by using the Burton-Miller formulation for meshless and boundary-only analysis of Helmholtz problems. The method can produce a unique solution at all wavenumbers and is valid for Dirichlet, Neumann and mixed problems simultaneously. An efficient numerical integration procedure is presented to handle both strongly singular and hypersingular boundary integrals directly and uniformly. Numerical results reveal that this direct meshless method only involves boundary nodes and can deal with Helmholtz problems at extremely large wavenumbers.     

On the convergence of the multigrid method for a hypersingular integral equation of the first kind

Summary We present a multigrid method to solve linear systems arising from Galerkin schemes for a hypersingular boundary integral equation governing three dimensional Neumann problems for the Laplacian. Our algorithm uses damped Jacobi iteration, Gauss-Seidel iteration or SOR as preand post-smoothers. If the integral equation holds on a closed, Lipschitz surface we prove convergence ofV- andW-cycles with any number of smoothing steps. If the integral equation holds on an open, Lipschitz surface (covering crack problems) we show convergence of theW-cycle. Numerical experiments are given which underline the theoretical results.     

BEM with linear complexity for the classical boundary integral operators

Alternative representations of boundary integral operators corresponding to elliptic boundary value problems are developed as a starting point for numerical approximations as, e.g., Galerkin boundary elements including numerical quadrature and panel-clustering. These representations have the advantage that the integrands of the integral operators have a reduced singular behaviour allowing one to choose the order of the numerical approximations much lower than for the classical formulations. Low-order discretisations for the single layer integral equations as well as for the classical double layer potential and the hypersingular integral equation are considered. We will present fully discrete Galerkin boundary element methods where the storage amount and the CPU time grow only linearly with respect to the number of unknowns.

     

Effective semi-analytic integration for hypersingular Galerkin boundary integral equations for the Helmholtz equation in 3D

We deal with the Galerkin discretization of the boundary integral equations corresponding to problems with the Helmholtz equation in 3D. Our main result is the semi-analytic integration for the bilinear form induced by the hypersingular operator. Such computations have already been proposed for the bilinear forms induced by the single-layer and the double-layer potential operators in the monograph The Fast Solution of Boundary Integral Equations by O. Steinbach and S. Rjasanow and we base our computations on these results.     

Transformation of hypersingular integrals and black-box cubature

In this paper, we will consider hypersingular integrals as they arise by transforming elliptic boundary value problems into boundary integral equations. First, local representations of these integrals will be derived. These representations contain so-called finite-part integrals. In the second step, these integrals are reformulated as improper integrals. We will show that these integrals can be treated by cubature methods for weakly singular integrals as they exist in the literature.

     

Exponential convergence of the hp-version for the boundary element method on open surfaces

Summary. We analyze the boundary element Galerkin method for weakly singular and hypersingular integral equations of the first kind on open surfaces. We show that the hp-version of the Galerkin method with geometrically refined meshes converges exponentially fast for both integral equations. The proof of this fast convergence is based on the special structure of the solutions of the integral equations which possess specific singularities at the corners and the edges of the surface. We show that these singularities can be efficiently approximated by piecewise tensor products of splines of different degrees on geometrically graded meshes. Numerical experiments supporting these results are presented. Received December 19, 1996 / Revised version received September 24, 1997 / Published online August 19, 1999     

On numerical cubatures of singular surface integrals in boundary element methods

Summary We present and analyze methods for the accurate and efficient evaluation of weakly, Cauchy and hypersingular integrals over piecewise analytic curved surfaces in ³.The class of admissible integrands includes all kernels arising in the numerical solution of elliptic boundary value problems in three-dimensional domains by the boundary integral equation method. The possibly not absolutely integrable kernels of boundary integral operators in local coordinates are pseudohomogeneous with analytic characteristics depending on the local geometry of the surface at the source point. This rules out weighted quadrature approaches with a fixed singular weight.For weakly singular integrals it is shown that Duffy's triangular coordinates leadalways to a removal of the kernel singularity. Also asymptotic estimates of the integration error are provided as the size of the boundary element patch tends to zero. These are based on the Rabinowitz-Richter estimates in connection with an asymptotic estimate of domains of analyticity in ².It is further shown that the modified extrapolation approach due to Lyness is in the weakly singular case always applicable. Corresponding error and asymptotic work estimates are presented.For the weakly singular as well as for Cauchy and hypersingular integrals which e.g. arise in the study of crack problems we analyze a family of product integration rules in local polar coordinates. These rules are hierarchically constructed from finite part integration formulas in radial and Gaussian formulas in angular direction. Again, we show how the Rabinowitz-Richter estimates can be applied providing asymptotic error estimates in terms of orders of the boundary element size.Partially supported by the Priority Research Programme Boundary Element Methods of the German Research Foundation DFG under Grant No. We 659/16-1 (guest programme) and under AFOSR-grant 89-0252.     

Boundary element preconditioners for a hypersingular integral equation on an interval

We propose an almost optimal preconditioner for the iterative solution of the Galerkin equations arising from a hypersingular integral equation on an interval. This preconditioning technique, which is based on the single layer potential, was already studied for closed curves [11,14]. For a boundary element trial space, we show that the condition number is of order (1 + | log h _min|)², where h _min is the length of the smallest element. The proof requires only a mild assumption on the mesh, easily satisfied by adaptive refinement algorithms.     

Efficient evaluation of highly oscillatory acoustic scattering surface integrals

We consider the approximation of some highly oscillatory weakly singular surface integrals, arising from boundary integral methods with smooth global basis functions for solving problems of high frequency acoustic scattering by three-dimensional convex obstacles, described globally in spherical coordinates. As the frequency of the incident wave increases, the performance of standard quadrature schemes deteriorates. Naive application of asymptotic schemes also fails due to the weak singularity. We propose here a new scheme based on a combination of an asymptotic approach and exact treatment of singularities in an appropriate coordinate system. For the case of a spherical scatterer we demonstrate via error analysis and numerical results that, provided the observation point is sufficiently far from the shadow boundary, a high level of accuracy can be achieved with a minimal computational cost.     

Boundary element-free methods for exterior acoustic problems with arbitrary and high wavenumbers

This paper proposes the boundary element-free method (BEFM) for the numerical solution of exterior acoustic problems with arbitrary and high wavenumbers. A single layer BEFM and a double layer BEFM are developed by using acoustic single and double layer potentials to represent the solution, respectively. To eliminate the non-uniqueness drawback, an improved combined field integral equation is derived free of strongly singular and hypersingular integrals, and then a combined field BEFM is also developed for enhancing the solution accuracy, particularly in the neighborhood of the characteristic wavenumber. Compared with the original BEFM, boundary conditions in the proposed three BEFMs are implemented accurately and easily by using density functions. Numerical examples involving single and multiple objects show that the proposed methods offer reliable and efficient numerical solutions to exterior acoustic problems with arbitrary and high wavenumbers.     

Fully discrete spectral boundary integral methods for Helmholtz problems on smooth closed surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$

Summary. In this paper we describe and analyse a class of spectral methods, based on spherical polynomial approximation, for second-kind weakly singular boundary integral equations arising from the Helmholtz equation on smooth closed 3D surfaces diffeomorphic to the sphere. Our methods are fully discrete Galerkin methods, based on the application of special quadrature rules for computing the outer and inner integrals arising in the Galerkin matrix entries. For the outer integrals we use, for example, product-Gauss rules. For the inner integrals, a variant of the classical product integration procedure is employed to remove the singularity arising in the kernel. The key to the analysis is a recent result of Sloan and Womersley on the norm of discrete orthogonal projection operators on the sphere. We prove that our methods are stable for continuous data and superalgebraically convergent for smooth data. Our theory includes as a special case a method closely related to one of those proposed by Wienert (1990) for the fast computation of direct and inverse acoustic scattering in 3D. Received May 29, 2000 / Revised version received March 26, 2001/ Published online December 18, 2001     

Multilevel diagonal scaling preconditioners for boundary element equations on locally refined meshes

Summary. We study a multilevel preconditioner for the Galerkin boundary element matrix arising from a symmetric positive-definite bilinear form. The associated energy norm is assumed to be equivalent to a Sobolev norm of positive, possibly fractional, order m on a bounded (open or closed) surface of dimension d, with . We consider piecewise linear approximation on triangular elements. Successive levels of the mesh are created by selectively subdividing elements within local refinement zones. Hanging nodes may be created and the global mesh ratio can grow exponentially with the number of levels. The coarse-grid correction consists of an exact solve, and the correction on each finer grid amounts to a simple diagonal scaling involving only those degrees of freedom whose associated nodal basis functions overlap the refinement zone. Under appropriate assumptions on the choice of refinement zones, the condition number of the preconditioned system is shown to be bounded by a constant independent of the number of degrees of freedom, the number of levels and the global mesh ratio. In addition to applying to Galerkin discretisation of hypersingular boundary integral equations, the theory covers finite element methods for positive-definite, self-adjoint elliptic problems with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Received October 5, 2001 / Revised version received December 5, 2001 / Published online April 17, 2002 The support of this work through Visiting Fellowship grant GR/N21970 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of Great Britain is gratefully acknowledged. The second author was also supported by the Australian Research Council     

Discrete boundary element methods on general meshes in 3D

Abstract. This paper is concerned with the stability and convergence of fully discrete Galerkin methods for boundary integral equations on bounded piecewise smooth surfaces in . Our theory covers equations with very general operators, provided the associated weak form is bounded and elliptic on , for some . In contrast to other studies on this topic, we do not assume our meshes to be quasiuniform, and therefore the analysis admits locally refined meshes. To achieve such generality, standard inverse estimates for the quasiuniform case are replaced by appropriate generalised estimates which hold even in the locally refined case. Since the approximation of singular integrals on or near the diagonal of the Galerkin matrix has been well-analysed previously, this paper deals only with errors in the integration of the nearly singular and smooth Galerkin integrals which comprise the dominant part of the matrix. Our results show how accurate the quadrature rules must be in order that the resulting discrete Galerkin method enjoys the same stability properties and convergence rates as the true Galerkin method. Although this study considers only continuous piecewise linear basis functions on triangles, our approach is not restricted in principle to this case. As an example, the theory is applied here to conventional “triangle-based” quadrature rules which are commonly used in practice. A subsequent paper [14] introduces a new and much more efficient “node-based” approach and analyses it using the results of the present paper. Received December 10, 1997 / Revised version received May 26, 1999 / Published online April 20, 2000 –? Springer-Verlag 2000