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.     

Boundary element formulation for elastoplastic analysis of axisymmetric bodies

The complete formulation of B.E.M. applied to the analysis of axisymmetric bodies acting in the plastic range is presented in this paper. The concept of derivative of a singular integral given by Mikhlin has been used in order to calculate the stresses in internal points.Also a semianalytical approach is proposed to compute the matrix coefficients, presenting the way in which it can be done and the results obtained.     

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.     

Finite element formulation of thermal boundary layers

In this article we discuss the finite element discretization of the two-dimensional, incompressible, and turbulent boundary layers. The formulation of the momentum equation is essentially due to Baker and Soliman [1] with some modifications.The versatility and the accuracy of the method is established by considering several test cases. The predictions are satisfactory and compare favorably with alternative numerical techniques.     

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.     

The solution of the non-homogeneous Helmholtz equation by means of the boundary element method

One of the most important advantages of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is that no internal discretization of the domain is required. This advantage, however, is generally lost when source terms are present in the governing differential equation. It is shown here that for the non-homogeneous Helmholtz equation with a harmonic source term, it is possible to transform the volume integral into a surface integral thus retaining this feature. The transformation is achieved using the Green formula. The technique is applied to solve numerically a test problem with known simple analytical solution.     

Mixed boundary element solution for three-dimensional convection-diffusion problem with a velocity profile

A mixed boundary element formulation is presented for convection-diffusion problems with a velocity profile. In this formulation the convection-diffusion equation is considered as a nonlinear diffusion equation with inhomogeneous terms in which the convective term is involved additionally, because the spatial distribution of the drift velocity cannot be straightforwardly expressed in boundary integral form. Accordingly, a corresponding boundary integral equation may be described usually in the form of a so-called hybrid-type boundary integral equation.

In the present paper, mixed boundary elements are employed in a discrete model of the original convection-diffusion system. In the mixed element, potentials are approximated linearly, and their normal derivatives to boundaries are assumed constant. A simple iterative scheme is adopted in order to solve hybrid-type mixed boundary element equations. Simple three-dimensional models are dealt with in numerical experiments. The proposed approach gives more accurate and stable solutions compared with constant boundary elements which have been reported.     

Exact evaluation of ∫dsr2 over a circular element

A simple analytical scheme to evaluate the essential integral in the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is derived. It is shown that better accuracy is achieved whilethe computer time is considerably reduced. Application to noncircular elements is also discussed and an example problem is included.     

Remarks concerning the boundary element method in potential theory

The BEM has become a well-known tool in the numerical treatment of potential and elesticity problems. In this paper some modifications concerning the treatment of singularities and of Neumann problems are presented, which lead to improved accuracy or reduced computing time.     

The boundary element method for stochastic potential problems

Stochastic Dirichlet and Neumann boundary value problems and stochastic mixed problems have been formulated. As a result the stochastic singular integral equations have been obtained. A way of solving these equations by means of discretization of a boundary using stochastic boundary elements has been presented, resulting in a set of random algebraic equations. It has been proved that for Dirichlet and Neumann problems probabilistic characteristics (i.e. moments: expected value and correlation function) fulfilled deterministic singular integral equations. A numerical method of evaluation of moments on a boundary and inside a domain has been presented.     

A boundary element method for homogenization of periodic structures

Homogenized coefficients of periodic structures are calculated via an auxiliary partial differential equation in the periodic cell. Typically, a volume finite element discretization is employed for the numerical solution. In this paper, we reformulate the problem as a boundary integral equation using Steklov–Poincaré operators. The resulting boundary element method only discretizes the boundary of the periodic cell and the interface between the materials within the cell. We prove that the homogenized coefficients converge super-linearly with the mesh size, and we support the theory with examples in two and three dimensions.     

Boundary element formulation for nonlinear applications in geomechanics

Several types of nonlinearities are considered, using the boundary element method, with emphasis on geomechanical applications. Numerical algorithms to model ‘no-tension’ plastic, viscoplastic and viscoelastic responses are presented. Extension of the method to two-dimensional piecewise homogeneous problems is shown.The overlay technique is adapted for the boundary element formulation to model complex plastic and viscoplastic responses. In particular, the technique is shown to be extremely useful to model time-dependent behaviour. It has also proved suitable for the Bauschinger-effect representation in elastoplastic analysis.Tunnel examples are presented and are shown to be very well suited to solution by boundary elements. The method deals with infinite domains without requiring the definition of an artificial outer boundary. As a result little discretization is needed.     

The boundary element method with Lagrangian multipliers

On open surfaces, the energy space of hypersingular operators is a fractional order Sobolev space of order 1/2 with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition (along the boundary curve of the surface) in a weak sense. We introduce a boundary element Galerkin method where this boundary condition is incorporated via the use of a Lagrangian multiplier. We prove the quasi‐optimal convergence of this method (it is slightly inferior to the standard conforming method) and underline the theory by a numerical experiment. The approach presented in this article is not meant to be a competitive alternative to the conforming method but rather the basis for nonconforming techniques like the mortar method, to be developed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Contact shape optimization based on the reciprocal variational formulation

The paper deals with a class of optimal shape design problems for elastic bodies unilaterally supported by a rigid foundation. Cost and constraint functionals defining the problem depend on contact stresses, i.e. their control is of primal interest. To this end, the so-called reciprocal variational formulation of contact problems making it possible to approximate directly the contact stresses is used. The existence and approximation results are established. The sensitivity analysis is carried out.     

A BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD FOR A NONLINEAR BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEM IN STEADY-STATE HEAT TRANSFER IN DIMENSION THREE

In this paper, a new method of boundary reduction is proposed, which reduces thesteady-state heat transfer equation with radiation. Moreover, a boundary element method is pre-sented for its solution and the error estimates of the numerical approximations are given.     

平面弹性力学问题边界元直接法中边界积分的解析处理

确立平面位势和弹性力学问题的边界元直接法中边界积分的解析计算框架系统,从而避免了传统的高斯近似求积分,数值算例表明它具有较高的精度和效率,特别是在边界量和边界附近区域内点物理量的计算可获得较高的精度。     

A preconditioning strategy for boundary element Galerkin methods

The Dirichlet and Neumann problems for the Laplacian are reformulated in the usual way as boundary integral equations of the first kind with symmetric kernels. These integral equations are solved using Galerkin's method with piecewise-constant and piecewise-linear boundary elements, respectively. In both cases, the stiffness matrix is symmetric and positive-definite, and has a condition number of order N, the number of degrees of freedom. By contrast, the condition number of the product of the two stiffness matrices is bounded independently of N. Hence, we can use the Neumann stiffness matrix to precondition the Dirichlet stiffness matrix, and vice versa. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.