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.