The solution of contact problems using boundary element method

The formulation of contact problems is extended to the case of moving punches and to the case when the state of the systems being investigated depends on the history of the change in the external actions. The quasi-static contact problem for a moving rigid rough punch and a single linearly deformable body is considered. A new iterational process is proposed for solving contact problems, taking friction in the contact area into account, and its convergence is proved. An algorithm of the solution, based on the boundary element method, is developed. Solutions of specific problems are given and analysed. Estimates of the difference of the solutions due to the difference in the impenetrability conditions and the difference in the steps of the loading parameter are obtained.     

Elastic-plastic stress analysis of cracked structures using the boundary element method

The application of the boundary element method (BEM) for the 3D-stress analysis of cracked structures considering elastic-plastic material behavior is presented. For separating the coincident crack surfaces the DUAL-BEM is utilized. The relevant boundary integral equations (BIE) – the strongly singular displacement BIE and the hypersingular traction BIE – are evaluated in the framework of a collocation procedure. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Solution of some plate bending problems using the boundary element method

Some fundamental aspects of the boundary element method of the Kirchhoff theory of thin plate flexure are given. The direct boundary integral equation method with higher conforming properties (using first-order Hermitian interpolation for plate displacement ω, and zero-order Hermitian interpolation for angle of rotation θ, the moment M andthe equivalent shear V) are used for several computational examples. They are: square plate with simply-supported or clamped edges, the same square plate with square central opening and the cantilevered triangular plates. The results of computation as compared with some known experimental and theoritical results showed that the numerical schemes seemed to be satisfactory for the practical applications.     

Finite element approximation of the Dirichlet problem using the boundary penalty method

Numerische Mathematik - This paper considers a finite element approximation of the Dirichlet problem for a second order self-adjoint elliptic equation,Au=f, in a region Ω ⊂ ℝn (n=2...     

Approximation of boundary values in the boundary element method

Various techniques may be applied to the approximation of the unknown boundary functions involved in the boundary element method (BEM). Several techniques have been examined numerically to find the most efficient. Techniques considered were: Lagrangian polynomials of the zeroth, first and second orders; spline functions; and the novel weighted minimization technique used successfully in the finite difference method (FDM) for arbitrarily irregular meshes. All these approaches have been used in the BEM for the numerical analysis of plates with various boundary conditions.Both coarse and fine grids on the boundary have been assumed. Maximal errors of the deflections of each plate and the bending moments have been found and the effective computer CPU times determined.Analysis of the results showed that, for the same computer time, the greatest accuracy was obtained by the weighted FDM approach. In the case of the Lagrange approximation, higher order polynomials have proved more efficient. The spline technique yielded more accurate results, but with a higher CPU time.Two discretization approaches have been investigated: the least-squares technique and the collocation method. Despite the fact that the simultaneous algebraic equations obtained were not symmetric, the collocation approach has been confirmed as clearly superior to the least-squares technique, because of the amount of computation time used.     

Numerical solution of thermal convection problems using the multidomain boundary element method

The multidomain dual reciprocity method (MD‐DRM) has been effectively applied to the solution of two‐dimensional thermal convection problems where the momentum and energy equations govern the motion of a viscous fluid. In the proposed boundary integral method the domain integrals are transformed into equivalent boundary integrals by the dual reciprocity approach applied in a subdomain basis. On each subregion or domain element the integral representation formulas for the velocity and temperature are applied and discretised using linear continuous boundary elements, and the equations from adjacent subregions are matched by additional continuity conditions. Some examples showing the accuracy, the efficiency and flexibility of the proposed method are presented. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 469–489, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/num.10016     

Simulation of electrochemical machining using the boundary element method with no saturation

The simulation of electrochemical machining (ECM) is based on determining the surface shape at each point in time. The change in the shape of the surface depends on the rate of the electrochemical dissolution of the metal (conducting material), which is assumed to be proportional to the electric field strength on the boundary of the workpiece. The potential of the electric field is a harmonic function outside the two domains—the tool electrode and the workpiece. Constant potentials are specified on the boundaries of the tool electrode and the workpiece. A scheme with no saturation in which the strength of the electric field created by the potential difference on the boundary of the workpiece is proposed. The scheme converges exponentially in the number of grid elements on the workpiece boundary. Given the rate of electrochemical dissolution, the workpiece boundary, which depends on time, is found. The numerical solutions are compared with exact solutions, examples of the ECM simulation are discussed, and the results are compared with those obtained by other numerical methods and the ones obtained using ECM machines.     

Improved boundary treatment for the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method using implicit surfaces

The boundary treatment for modeling complex geometries in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods is always challenging, especially for objects with sharp corners. In this paper, we propose an improved boundary treatment technique to handle boundary conditions in the SPH method where objects are represented as implicit surfaces. The improved boundary treatment technique provides a full treatment for complicated geometries and can handle sharp edges without any special treatment. The boundary particles are uniformly distributed in compliance with the curvature of the objects, therefore taking into consideration the effect of the boundary. Several simulations are presented to validate and demonstrate the applicability and versatility of the proposed technique.     

Solving parabolic Wick-stochastic boundary value problems using a finite element method

A class of linear parabolic stochastic boundary value problems of Wick-type is studied. The equations are understood in a weak sense on a suitable stochastic distribution space, and existence and uniqueness results are provided. The paper continues to discuss a numerical method for this type of problem, based on a Galerkin type of approximation. Estimates showing linear convergence in time and space are derived, and rate of convergence results for the stochastic dimension are reported.     

An alternative formulation of the boundary element method

The paper suggests an alternative formulation of the Boundary Element Method, in which singular solutions generated by unit dislocations are required and moreover the stresses at the interior points of the body are directly computed from the boundary quantities, without passing through the displacements. Relationships between the singular solutions for unit dislocation and unit force are derived.     

An isogeometric boundary element approach for topology optimization using the level set method

Among the various types of structural optimization, topology has been occupying a prominent place over the last decades. It is considered the most versatile because it allows structural geometry to be determined taking into account only loading and fixing constraints. This technique is extremely useful in the design phase, which requires increasingly complex computational modeling. Modern geometric modeling techniques are increasingly focused on the use of NURBS basis functions. Consequently, it seems natural that topology optimization techniques also use this basis in order to improve computational performance. In this paper, we propose a way to integrate the isogeometric boundary techniques to topology optimization through the level set function. The proposed coupling occurs by describing the normal velocity field from the level set equation as a function of the normal shape sensitivity. This process is not well behaved in general, so some regularization technique needs to be specified. Limiting to plane linear elasticity cases, the numerical investigations proposed in this study indicate that this type of coupling allows to obtain results congruent with the current literature. Moreover, the additional computational costs are small compared to classical techniques, which makes their advantage for optimization purposes evident, particularly for boundary element method practitioners.     

On the boundary element method for some nonlinear boundary value problems

Summary Here we analyse the boundary element Galerkin method for two-dimensional nonlinear boundary value problems governed by the Laplacian in an interior (or exterior) domain and by highly nonlinear boundary conditions. The underlying boundary integral operator here can be decomposed into the sum of a monotoneous Hammerstein operator and a compact mapping. We show stability and convergence by using Leray-Schauder fixed-point arguments due to Petryshyn and Neas.Using properties of the linearised equations, we can also prove quasioptimal convergence of the spline Galerkin approximations.This work was carried out while the first author was visiting the University of Stuttgart     

On a hybrid boundary element method

Summary. In this paper we study a symmetric boundary element method based on a hybrid discretization of the Steklov–Poincaré operator well suited for a symmetric coupling of finite and boundary elements. The representation used involves only single and double layer potentials and does not require the discretization of the hypersingular integral operator as in the symmetric formulation. The stability of the hybrid Galerkin discretization is based on a BBL–like stability condition for the trial spaces. Numerical examples confirm the theoretical results. Received December 15, 1997 / Revised version received December 21, 1998/ Published online November 17, 1999     

Analysis of a cell boundary element method

The CBEM (cell boundary element method) was proposed as a numerical method for second-order elliptic problems by the first author in the earlier paper [10]. In this paper we prove a quasi-optimal order of convergence of the method, O(h^1–) for >0 in H¹-norm for the triangular mesh; also a stability result is obtained. We provide numerical examples and it is observed that the method conserves flux exactly when a certain condition on meshes is satisfied. This work was supported by KOSEF 2000-1-10300-001-5.AMS subject classification 65N30, 65N38, 65N50