A one-sweep method in the solution of finite-element equations: An application to the vibration of structures in heavy fluids

A one-sweep method for the numerical solution of finite-element equations is presented. This procedure is especially efficient in computing time and storage when the solution is required at only a few nodes of the finite-element mesh. Furthermore, the method is particularly useful in dealing with problems on infinite or semi-infinite domains. Artificial boundaries must be introduced in such cases, and the one-sweep method affords an extremely efficient algorithm by which the dependence of the solution on the location of these boundaries can be assessed. An application of the method to the vibration of a half-submerged circular cylinder in a heavy fluid is presented.The second author wishes to express his thanks to Professor J. L. Sackman for reviewing this work.(deceased).