Galerkin boundary integral analysis for the axisymmetric Laplace equation

The boundary integral equation for the axisymmetric Laplace equation is solved by employing modified Galerkin weight functions. The alternative weights smooth out the singularity of the Green's function at the symmetry axis, and restore symmetry to the formulation. As a consequence, special treatment of the axis equations is avoided, and a symmetric‐Galerkin formulation would be possible. For the singular integration, the integrals containing a logarithmic singularity are converted to a non‐singular form and evaluated partially analytically and partially numerically. The modified weight functions, together with a boundary limit definition, also result in a simple algorithm for the post‐processing of the surface gradient. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flux and traction boundary elements without hypersingular or strongly singular integrals

The present paper deals with a boundary element formulation based on the traction elasticity boundary integral equation (potential derivative for Laplace's problem). The hypersingular and strongly singular integrals appearing in the formulation are analytically transformed to yield line and surface integrals which are at most weakly singular. Regularization and analytical transformation of the boundary integrals is done prior to any boundary discretization. The integration process does not require any change of co‐ordinates and the resulting integrals can be numerically evaluated in a simple and efficient way. The formulation presented is completely general and valid for arbitrary shaped open or closed boundaries. Analytical expressions for all the required hypersingular or strongly singular integrals are given in the paper. To fulfil the continuity requirement over the primary density a simple BE discretization strategy is adopted. Continuous elements are used whereas the collocation points are shifted towards the interior of the elements. This paper pretends to contribute to the transformation of hypersingular boundary element formulations as something clear, general and easy to handle similar to in the classical formulation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of transformation methods for evaluating two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals

Accurate numerical evaluation of integrals arising in the boundary element method is fundamental to achieving useful results via this solution technique. In this paper, a number of techniques are considered to evaluate the weakly singular integrals which arise in the solution of Laplace's equation in three dimensions and Poisson's equation in two dimensions. Both are two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals and are evaluated using (in a product fashion) methods which have recently been used for evaluating one‐dimensional weakly singular integrals arising in the boundary element method. The methods used are based on various polynomial transformations of conventional Gaussian quadrature points where the transformation polynomial has zero Jacobian at the singular point. Methods which split the region of integration into sub‐regions are considered as well as non‐splitting methods. In particular, the newly introduced and highly accurate generalized composite subtraction of singularity and non‐linear transformation approach (GSSNT) is applied to various two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals. A study of the different methods reveals complex relationships between transformation orders, position of the singular point, integration kernel and basis function. It is concluded that the GSSNT method gives the best overall results for the two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals studied. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accurate integration of singular kernels in boundary integral formulations for Helmholtz equation

Boundary integral formulations for the 2D Helmholtz equation involve kernels in the form of modified Bessel functions. Accurate schemes for evaluating integrals of the kernels and their derivatives are presented. Special attention is paid to integrals involving singular and near singular kernels. Both boundary and domain integrals are considered. It is shown that, with the use of series expansion functions for the modified Bessel functions, the boundary integrals can be evaluated analytically in the neighbourhood of the singularity. For domain integrals, the behaviour of the kernels in the vicinity of the singularity is used to construct accurate numerical quadrature schemes. A transient heat conduction problem is formulated as a Helmholtz equation, solved, and compared against analytic solution to demonstrate the effectiveness of these schemes in relation to traditional methods. References are made to previous work to advocate the utility of the boundary integral method for non-linear and time-transient problems.     

On the singularities of Green's formula and its normal derivative,with an application to surface‐wave–body interaction problems

The paper presents the non‐singular forms of Green's formula and its normal derivative of exterior problems for three‐dimensional Laplace's equation. The main advantage of these modified formulations is that they are amenable to solution by directly using quadrature formulas. Thus, the conventional boundary element approximation, which locally regularizes the singularities in each element, is not required. The weak singularities are treated by both the Gauss flux theorem and the property of the associated equipotential body. The hypersingularities are treated by further using the boundary formula for the associated interior problems. The efficacy of the modified formulations is examined by a sphere, in an infinite domain, subject to Neumann and Dirichlet conditions, respectively. The modified integral formulations are further applied to a practical problem, i.e. surface‐wave–body interactions. Using the conventional boundary integral equation formulation is known to break down at certain discrete frequencies for such a problem. Removing the ‘irregular’ frequencies is performed by linearly combining the standard integral equation with its normal derivative. Computations are presented of the added‐mass and damping coefficients and wave exciting forces on a floating hemisphere. Comparing the numerical results with that by other approaches demonstrates the effectiveness of the method. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new boundary integral equation method for analysis of cracked linear elastic bodies

Abstract

A novel integral equation method is developed in this paper for the analysis of two‐dimensional general anisotropic elastic bodies with cracks. In contrast to the conventional boundary integral methods based on reciprocal work theorem, the present method is derived from Stroh's formalism for anisotropic elasticity in conjunction with Cauchy's integral formula. The proposed boundary integral equations contain boundary displacement gradients and tractions on the non‐crack boundary and the dislocations on the crack lines. In cases where only the crack faces are subjected to tractions, the integrals on the non‐crack boundary are non‐singular. The boundary integral equations can be solved using Gaussian‐type integration formulas directly without dividing the boundary into discrete elements. Numerical examples of stress intensity factors are given to illustrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the present method.     

Cell‐based volume integration for boundary integral analysis

The evaluation of volume integrals that arise in boundary integral formulations for non‐homogeneous problems was considered. Using the “Galerkin vector” to represent the Green's function, the volume integral was decomposed into a boundary integral, together with a volume integral wherein the source function was everywhere zero on the boundary. This new volume integral can be evaluated using a regular grid of cells covering the domain, with all cell integrals, including partial cells at the boundary, evaluated by simple linear interpolation of vertex values. For grid vertices that lie close to the boundary, the near‐singular integrals were handled by partial analytic integration. The method employed a Galerkin approximation and was presented in terms of the three‐dimensional Poisson problem. An axisymmetric formulation was also presented, and in this setting, the solution of a nonlinear problem was considered. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A meshless BEM for isotropic heat conduction problems with heat generation and spatially varying conductivity

In this paper, a new and simple boundary‐domain integral equation is presented for heat conduction problems with heat generation and non‐homogeneous thermal conductivity. Since a normalized temperature is introduced to formulate the integral equation, temperature gradients are not involved in the domain integrals. The Green's function for the Laplace equation is used and, therefore, the derived integral equation has a unified form for different heat generations and thermal conductivities. The arising domain integrals are converted into equivalent boundary integrals using the radial integration method (RIM) by expressing the normalized temperature using a series of basis functions and polynomials in global co‐ordinates. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the robustness of the presented method. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differentiability of strongly singular and hypersingular boundary integral formulations with respect to boundary perturbations

In this paper, we establish that the Lagrangian-type material differentiation formulas, that allow to express the first-order derivative of a (regular) surface integral with respect to a geometrical domain perturbation, still hold true for the strongly singular and hypersingular surface integrals usually encountered in boundary integral formulations. As a consequence, this work supports previous investigations where shape sensitivities are computed using the so-called direct differentiation approach in connection with singular boundary integral equation formulations. Communicated by T. Cruse, 6 September 1996     

Three-dimensional boundary element analysis of electromagnetic wave scattering by penetrable bodies

A frequency domain boundary element methodology of solving three dimensional electromagnetic wave scattering problems by dielectric particles is reported. The method utilizes a computationally attractive surface integral equation containing only weakly and strongly singular integrals in the contrast to most formulations involving not only strongly singular but hypersingular integrals as well. The main advantage of this integral equation is the fact that its strongly singular part is similar to the one appearing in the corresponding integral equation of dynamic elasticity. Thus, well known advanced integration techniques used successfully in elastic scattering problems can be directly applied to the present analysis. Both continuous and discontinuous quadratic elements are employed in order to accurately treat dielectric scatterers with smooth and piecewise smooth boundaries. Numerical examples dealing with three dimensional electromagnetic wave scattering problems demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed boundary element formulation.     

Regularization of nearly hypersingular integrals in the boundary element method

A critical aspect in all implementations of the boundary element method is an accurate computation of the kernels' integration. These kernels are singular or hypersingular when the collocation point belongs to the integration element, and different techniques have been devised to tackle this problem. Another important issue is the integration of the kernels when the collocation point is close to but not in the integration element. The ensuing integrals although regular are termed quasi-singular or nearly singular, and quasi-hypersingular or nearly hypersingular since the integrand varies rapidly within the integration interval, and cannot be accurately computed by standard procedures. A kernels' complex regularization procedure is presented in this paper, which leads to a decomposition of the quasi-singular and quasi-hypersingular integrals in a series of simpler terms. The method is applied to the stress boundary integral equation for two-dimensional bodies, and it is tested in both curved and straight elements. For straight elements, the method leads to closed-form formulas, which are included in the paper.     

Semi‐sigmoidal transformations for evaluating weakly singular boundary element integrals

Accurate numerical integration of line integrals is of fundamental importance to reliable implementation of the boundary element method. Usually, the regular integrals arising from a boundary element method implementation are evaluated using standard Gaussian quadrature. However, the singular integrals which arise are often evaluated in another way, sometimes using a different integration method with different nodes and weights. Here, a co‐ordinate transformation technique is introduced for evaluating weakly singular integrals which, after some initial manipulation of the integral, uses the same integration nodes and weights as those of the regular integrals. The transformation technique is based on newly defined semi‐sigmoidal transformations, which cluster integration nodes only near the singular point. The semi‐sigmoidal transformations are defined in terms of existing sigmoidal transformations and have the benefit of evaluating integrals more accurately than full sigmoidal transformations as the clustering is restricted to one end point of the interval. Comparison of this new method with existing coordinate transformation techniques shows that more accurate evaluation of weakly singular integrals can be obtained. Based on observation of several integrals considered, guidelines are suggested for the type of semi‐sigmoidal transformation to use and the degree to which nodes should be clustered at the singular points. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element analysis in thermoelasticity with and without internal cells

In this paper, a set of internal stress integral equations is derived for solving thermoelastic problems. A jump term and a strongly singular domain integral associated with the temperature of the material are produced in these equations. The strongly singular domain integral is then regularized using a semi‐analytical technique. To avoid the requirement of discretizing the domain into internal cells, domain integrals included in both displacement and internal stress integral equations are transformed into equivalent boundary integrals using the radial integration method (RIM). Two numerical examples for 2D and 3D, respectively, are presented to verify the derived formulations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐regular boundary integral equation formulations for Laplace's equation in 2‐D

The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the application of the self‐regular formulation strategy using Green's identity (potential‐BIE) and its gradient form (flux‐BIE) for Laplace's equation. Self‐regular formulations lead to highly effective BEM algorithms that utilize standard conforming boundary elements and low‐order Gaussian integrations. Both formulations are discussed and implemented for two‐dimensional potential problems, and numerical results are presented. Potential results show that the use of quartic interpolations is required for the flux‐BIE to show comparable accuracy to the potential‐BIE using quadratic interpolations. On the other hand, flux error results in the potential‐BIE implementation can be dominated by the numerical integration of the logarithmic kernel of the remaining weakly singular integral. Accuracy of these flux results does not improve beyond a certain level when using standard quadrature together with a special transformation, but when an alternative logarithmic quadrature scheme is used these errors are shown to reduce abruptly, and the flux results converge monotonically to the exact answer. In the flux‐BIE implementation, where all integrals are regularized, flux results accuracy improves systematically, even with some oscillations, when refining the mesh or increasing the order of the interpolating function. The flux‐BIE approach presents a great numerical sensitivity to the mesh generation scheme and refinement. Accurate results for the potential and the flux were obtained for coarse‐graded meshes in which the rate of change of the tangential derivative of the potential was better approximated. This numerical sensitivity and the need for graded meshes were not found in the elasticity problem for which self‐regular formulations have also been developed using a similar approach. Logarithmic quadrature to evaluate the weakly singular integral is implemented in the self‐regular potential‐BIE, showing that the magnitude of the error is dependent only on the standard Gauss integration of the regularized integral, but not on this logarithmic quadrature of the weakly singular integral. The self‐regular potential‐BIE is compared with the standard (CPV) formulation, showing the equivalence between these formulations. The self‐regular BIE formulations and computational algorithms are established as robust alternatives to singular BIE formulations for potential problems. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytic formulations for calculating nearly singular integrals in two-dimensional BEM

There exist the nearly singular integrals in the boundary integral equations when a source point is close to an integration element but not on the element, such as the field problems with thin domains. In this paper, the analytic formulations are achieved to calculate the nearly weakly singular, strongly singular and hyper-singular integrals on the straight elements for the two-dimensional (2D) boundary element methods (BEM). The algorithm is performed after the BIE are discretized by a set of boundary elements. The singular factor, which is expressed by the minimum relative distance from the source point to the closer element, is separated from the nearly singular integrands by the use of integration by parts. Thus, it results in exact integrations of the nearly singular integrals for the straight elements, instead of the numerical integration. The analytic algorithm is also used to calculate nearly singular integrals on the curved element by subdividing it into several linear or sub-parametric elements only when the nearly singular integrals need to be determined. The approach can achieve high accuracy in cases of the curved elements without increasing other computational efforts. As an application, the technique is employed to analyze the 2D elasticity problems, including the thin-walled structures. Some numerical results demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the algorithm.     

Tangential derivative of singular boundary integrals with respect to the position of collocation points

This paper investigates the evaluation of the sensitivity, with respect to tangential perturbations of the singular point, of boundary integrals having either weak or strong singularity. Both scalar potential and elastic problems are considered. A proper definition of the derivative of a strongly singular integral with respect to singular point perturbations should accommodate the concomitant perturbation of the vanishing exclusion neighbourhood involved in the limiting process used in the definition of the integral itself. This is done here by esorting to a shape sensitivity approach, considering a particular class of infinitesimal domain perturbations that ‘move’ individual points, and especially the singular point, but leave the initial domain globally unchanged. This somewhat indirect strategy provides a proper mathematical setting for the analysis. Moreover, the resulting sensitivity expressions apply to arbitrary potential-type integrals with densities only subjected to some regularity requirements at the singular point, and thus are applicable to approximate as well as exact BEM solutions. Quite remarkable is the fact that the analysis is applicable when the singular point is located on an edge and simply continuous elements are used. The hypersingular BIE residual function is found to be equal to the derivative of the strongly singular BIE residual when the same values of the boundary variables are substituted in both SBIE and HBIE formulations, with interesting consequences for some error indicator computation strategies. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radial integration boundary integral and integro-differential equation methods for two-dimensional heat conduction problems with variable coefficients

This paper presents new formulations of the radial integration boundary integral equation (RIBIE) and the radial integration boundary integro-differential equation (RIBIDE) methods for the numerical solution of two-dimensional heat conduction problems with variable coefficients. The methods use a specially constructed parametrix (Levi function) to reduce the boundary-value problem (BVP) to a boundary-domain integral equation (BDIE) or boundary-domain integro-differential equation (BDIDE). The radial integration method is then employed to convert the domain integrals arising in both BDIE and BDIDE methods into equivalent boundary integrals. The resulting formulations lead to pure boundary integral and integro-differential equations with no domain integrals. Numerical examples are presented for several simple problems, for which exact solutions are available, to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods.     

On non‐linear transformations for accurate numerical evaluation of weakly singular boundary integrals

This paper presents a study of the performance of the non‐linear co‐ordinate transformations in the numerical integration of weakly singular boundary integrals. A comparison of the smoothing property, numerical convergence and accuracy of the available non‐linear polynomial transformations is presented for two‐dimensional problems. Effectiveness of generalized transformations valid for any type and location of singularity has been investigated. It is found that weakly singular integrals are more efficiently handled with transformations valid for end‐point singularities by partitioning the element at the singular point. Further, transformations which are excellent for CPV integrals are not as accurate for weakly singular integrals. Connection between the maximum permissible order of polynomial transformations and precision of computations has also been investigated; cubic transformation is seen to be the optimum choice for single precision, and quartic or quintic one, for double precision computations. A new approach which combines the method of singularity subtraction with non‐linear transformation has been proposed. This composite approach is found to be more accurate, efficient and robust than the singularity subtraction method and the non‐linear transformation methods. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element‐free method for fracture analysis of 2‐D anisotropic piezoelectric solids

This paper considers a 2‐D fracture analysis of anisotropic piezoelectric solids by a boundary element‐free method. A traction boundary integral equation (BIE) that only involves the singular terms of order 1/r is first derived using integration by parts. New variables, namely, the tangential derivative of the extended displacement (the extended displacement density) for the general boundary and the tangential derivative of the extended crack opening displacement (the extended displacement dislocation density), are introduced to the equation so that solution to curved crack problems is possible. This resulted equation can be directly applied to general boundary and crack surface, and no separate treatments are necessary for the upper and lower surfaces of the crack. The extended displacement dislocation densities on the crack surface are expressed as the product of the characteristic terms and unknown weight functions, and the unknown weight functions are modelled using the moving least‐squares (MLS) approximation. The numerical scheme of the boundary element‐free method is established, and an effective numerical procedure is adopted to evaluate the singular integrals. The extended ‘stress intensity factors’ (SIFs) are computed for some selected example problems that contain straight or curved cracks, and good numerical results are obtained. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some identities for fundamental solutions and their applications to weakly-singular boundary element formulations

Some integral identities for the fundamental solutions of potential and elastostatic problems are established in this paper. With these identities it is shown that the conventional boundary integral equation (BIE), which is generally expressed in terms of singular integrals in the sense of the Cauchy principal value (CPV), and the derivative BIE, which is similarly expressed in terms of hypersingular integrals in the sense of the Hadamard finite-part (HFP), can both be written as weakly-singular integral equations in a systematic approach. Discretization of the weakly-singular BIE leads to the weakly-singular boundary element formulation equivalent to the method of using the rigid body displacement to determine the diagonal submatrices, which involve the CPV terms and the geometric matrix C, in the conventional BEM. The discretization of the weakly-singular derivative BIE possesses a similar feature, i.e. no CPV and HFP are involved. All these suggest that the practice of calculating CPV or HFP (for boundary integrals) and the geometric matrix C, either analytically or numerically, is unnecessary in the BEM. The approach developed in this paper is applicable to other problems such as plate bending, acoustics and elastodynamics.