The coupling method of finite elements and boundary elements for radiation problem

The paper presents the variational formulation and well posedness of the coupling method of finite elements and boundary elements for radiation problem. The convergence and optimal error estimate for the approximate solution and numerical experiment are provided.This research was supported in part by the Institute for Mathematics and its applications with funds provided by NSF, USA.     

On the coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods with nonlinear transmission conditions

We apply the coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods to study the weak solvability of certain exterior boundary value problems with nonlinear transmission conditions. As a model we consider a nonlinear second order elliptic equation in divergence form in a bounded inner region of the plane coupled with the Laplace equation in the corresponding exterior domain. The flux jump across the common nonlinear-linear interface is unknown and assumed to depend nonlinearly on the Dirichlet data. We establish the associated variational formulation in an operator equation setting and provide existence, uniqueness and approximation results.     

Implicit residual error estimators for the coupling of finite elements and boundary elements

We consider a symmetric Galerkin method for the coupling of finite elements and boundary elements for elliptic problems with a monotone operator in the finite element domain. We derive an a posteriori error estimator which involves the solution of equilibrated local Neumann problems in the finite element domain and requires computation of a residual term on the coupling interface. Finally, we discuss a similar approach for a coupling with Signorini contact conditions on the interface. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unified symmetric finite element and boundary integral variational coupling methods for linear fluid–structure interaction

This article concerns the development of energy-based variational formulations and their corresponding finite element–boundary element Rayleigh–Ritz approximations for solving the time-harmonic vibration and scattering problem of an inhomogeneous penetrable fluid or solid object immersed in a compressible, inviscid, homogeneous fluid. The resulting coupled finite element and boundary integral methods (FEM-BEM) have the following attractive features: (1) Separate direct and complementary variational principles lead naturally to several alternative structure variable and fluid variable methodologies. (2) The solution in the exterior region is represented by a combined single- and double-layer potential which ensures the validity of the methods for all wave numbers; even though this representation introduces hypersingular integrals, for actual computations the hypersingular operator may be rewritten in terms of single-layer potentials, which can be integrated by standard techniques. (3) Since the discretized equations for the interior region and for the boundary are derived from the first variation of bilinear functionals the resulting algebraic systems of equations are always symmetric. In addition, the transition conditions across the interface are natural. This allows one to approximate the solutions within the interior and exterior regions independently, without imposing any boundary constraints.     

Symmetric coupling of boundary elements and Raviart–Thomas-type mixed finite elements in elastostatics

Summary. Both mixed finite element methods and boundary integral methods are important tools in computational mechanics according to a good stress approximation. Recently, even low order mixed methods of Raviart–Thomas-type became available for problems in elasticity. Since either methods are robust for critical Poisson ratios, it appears natural to couple the two methods as proposed in this paper. The symmetric coupling changes the elliptic part of the bilinear form only. Hence the convergence analysis of mixed finite element methods is applicable to the coupled problem as well. Specifically, we couple boundary elements with a family of mixed elements analyzed by Stenberg. The locking-free implementation is performed via Lagrange multipliers, numerical examples are included. Received February 21, 1995 / Revised version received December 21, 1995     

On the ellipticity of coupled finite element and one-equation boundary element methods for boundary value problems

In this paper we extend some recent results on the stability of the Johnson–Nédelec coupling of finite and boundary element methods in the case of boundary value problems. In Of and Steinbach (Z Angew Math Mech 93:476–484, 2013), Sayas (SIAM J Numer Anal 47:3451–3463, 2009) and Steinbach (SIAM J Numer Anal 49:1521–1531, 2011), the case of a free-space transmission problem was considered, and sufficient and necessary conditions are stated which ensure the ellipticity of the bilinear form for the coupled problem. The proof was based on considering the energies which are related to both the interior and exterior problem. In the case of boundary value problems for either interior or exterior problems, additional estimates are required to bound the energy for the solutions of related subproblems. Moreover, several techniques for the stabilization of the coupled formulations are analysed. Applications involve boundary value problems with either hard or soft inclusions, exterior boundary value problems, and macro-element techniques.     

On the finite volume element method

Summary The finite volume element method (FVE) is a discretization technique for partial differential equations. It uses a volume integral formulation of the problem with a finite partitioning set of volumes to discretize the equations, then restricts the admissible functions to a finite element space to discretize the solution. this paper develops discretization error estimates for general selfadjoint elliptic boundary value problems with FVE based on triangulations with linear finite element spaces and a general type of control volume. We establishO(h) estimates of the error in a discreteH ¹ semi-norm. Under an additional assumption of local uniformity of the triangulation the estimate is improved toO(h ²). Results on the effects of numerical integration are also included.This research was sponsored in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant number AFOSR-86-0126 and the National Science Foundation under grant number DMS-8704169. This work was performed while the author was at the University of Colorado at Denver     

The coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods for the nonstationary exterior flow

In this article, we represent a new numerical method for solving the nonstationary Navier–Stokes equations in an unbounded domain. The technique consists of coupling the boundary integral and the finite element method. The variational formulation and the well-posedness of the coupling method are obtained. The convergence and optimal error estimates for the approximate solution are provided. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 14: 549–565, 1998     

Coupling of mixed finite elements and boundary elements

The symmetric coupling of mixed finite element and boundaryelement methods is analysed for a model interface problem withthe Laplacian. The coupling involves a further continuous ansatzfunction on the interface to link the discontinuous displacementfield to the necessarily continuous boundary ansatz function.Quasi-optimal a priori error estimates and sharp a posteriorierror estimates are established which justify adaptive mesh-refiningalgorithms. Numerical experiments prove the adaptive couplingas an efficient tool for the numerical treatment of transmissionproblems.     

Optimizations of a fast multipole symmetric Galerkin boundary element method code

Numerical Algorithms - This paper presents some optimizations of a fast multipole symmetric Galerkin boundary element method code. Except general optimizations, the code is specially sped up for...     

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     

The h-p version of the coupling of finite element and boundary element methods for transmission problems in polyhedral domains

Summary. This paper analyzes the rate of convergence of the h-p version of the coupling of the finite element and boundary element method for transmission problems with a linear differential operator with variable coefficients in a bounded polyhedral domain and with constant coefficients in the exterior domain . This procedure uses the variational formulation of the differential equation in and involves integral operators on the interface between and . The finite elements are used to obtain approximate solutions of the differential equation in and the boundary elements are used to obtain approximate solutions of the integral equations. For given piecewise analytic data we show that the Galerkin solution of this coupling procedure converges exponentially fast in the energy norm if the h-p version is used both for finite elements and boundary elements. Received February 10, 1996 / Revised version received April 4, 1997     

A new coupling of mixed finite element and boundary element methods for an exterior Helmholtz problem in the plane

This paper deals with the scattering of time harmonic electromagnetic waves by an infinitely long cylinder containing a non-homogeneous conducting medium. More precisely, we study the transverse magnetic field that solves an interface problem holding between the cross section of the cylinder and the exterior two-dimensional free space. We apply a dual-mixed variational formulation in the obstacle coupled with a boundary integral equation method in the unbounded homogeneous space. A Fredholm alternative is utilized to prove that this continuous formulation is well posed. We define the corresponding discrete scheme by using the lowest order rotated Raviart-Thomas finite elements for the magnetic field and spectral elements for the boundary unknown. Then, we show that the resulting Galerkin scheme is uniquely solvable and convergent, and prove optimal error estimates. Finally, we illustrate our analysis with some results from computational experiments. This research was partially supported by CONICYT-Chile through the FONDAP Program in Applied Mathematics, by the Dirección de Investigación of the Universidad de Concepción through the Advanced Research Groups Program, and by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain, through the project No. MTM2004-05417.     

On the multigrid solution of finite element equations with isoparametric elements

Summary It has been shown that the multigrid method as applied to finite element systems can produce a solution to the equations inO(N) arithmetical operations whereN is the number of unknowns. This result was obtained under the assumption that there was no approximation of the boundary. It is shown here that this result holds also in the case that the boundary is approximated and isoparametric elements are used.This research was supported by NSF grant MCS76-06293     

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     

Hybrid stress analysis of boundary and finite elements by a super-element method

This paper is concerned with the hybrid method of boundary element and finite element techniques by means of an “external-super-element” function of the commercial finite element method code . The proposed super-element method preserves the modelling simplicity of the boundary element method and the generality of . Two- and three-dimensional elastostatic analyses are performed to demonstrate the accuracy of this method as well as its applicability to practical problems.