A meshless singular boundary method for three‐dimensional elasticity problems

This study documents the first attempt to extend the singular boundary method, a novel meshless boundary collocation method, for the solution of 3D elasticity problems. The singular boundary method involves a coupling between the regularized BEM and the method of fundamental solutions. The main idea here is to fully inherit the dimensionality and stability advantages of the former and the meshless and integration‐free attributes of the later. This makes it particularly attractive for problems in complex geometries and three dimensions. Four benchmark 3D problems in linear elasticity are well studied to demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed method. The advantages, disadvantages, and potential applications of the proposed method, as compared with the FEM, BEM, and method of fundamental solutions, are also examined and discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New investigations into the BKM for inverse problems of Helmholtz equation

The boundary knot method (BKM) is an inherent boundary-type meshless collocation method for partial differential equations (PDEs). Using non-singular general solutions, numerical solutions of the PDE can be obtained based on the boundary points. In this paper, we investigate the applications of the BKM to solve Helmholtz problems involving various boundary conditions. We use the effective condition number to investigate the ill-conditioned interpolation system. Different from previous investigations, numerical results in this paper reveal that the BKM is promising in dealing with Helmholtz problems under only partially accessible boundary conditions.     

Matched interface and boundary (MIB) for the implementation of boundary conditions in high‐order central finite differences

High‐order central finite difference schemes encounter great difficulties in implementing complex boundary conditions. This paper introduces the matched interface and boundary (MIB) method as a novel boundary scheme to treat various general boundary conditions in arbitrarily high‐order central finite difference schemes. To attain arbitrarily high order, the MIB method accurately extends the solution beyond the boundary by repeatedly enforcing only the original set of boundary conditions. The proposed approach is extensively validated via boundary value problems, initial‐boundary value problems, eigenvalue problems, and high‐order differential equations. Successful implementations are given to not only Dirichlet, Neumann, and Robin boundary conditions, but also more general ones, such as multiple boundary conditions in high‐order differential equations and time‐dependent boundary conditions in evolution equations. Detailed stability analysis of the MIB method is carried out. The MIB method is shown to be able to deliver high‐order accuracy, while maintaining the same or similar stability conditions of the standard high‐order central difference approximations. The application of the proposed MIB method to the boundary treatment of other non‐standard high‐order methods is also considered. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BEM Analysis of 3D Heat Conductionin 3D Thin Anisotropic Media

In this paper, the boundary integrals for treating 3D field problems are fully regularized for planar elements by the technique of integration by parts (IBP). As has been well documented in open literatures, these integrals appear to be strongly singular and hyper-singular for the associated fundamental solutions. In the past, the IBP approach has only been applied to regularize the integrals for 2D problems. The present work shows that the IBP can also be further extended to treat 3D problems, where two variables of the local coordinates are involved. The presented formulations are fully explicit and also, most importantly, very straightforward for implementation in program codes. To demonstrate their validity and our implementation, a few example cases of 3D anisotropic heat conduction are investigated by the boundary element method and the calculated results are verified using analyses by ANSYS.     

Elasticity solution for vibration of 2‐D curved beams with variable curvatures using a spectral‐sampling surface method

An accurate spectral‐sampling surface method for the vibration analysis of 2‐D curved beams with variable curvatures and general boundary conditions is presented. The method combines the advantages of the sampling surface method and spectral method. The formulation is based on the 2‐D elasticity theory, which provides complete accuracy and efficiency for curved beams with arbitrary thicknesses and variable curvatures because no other assumptions on the deformations and stresses along the thickness direction are introduced. Specifically, a set of non‐equally spaced sampling surfaces parallel to the beam's middle surface are primarily collocated along the thickness direction, and the displacements of these surfaces are chosen as fundamental beam unknowns. This fact provides an opportunity to derive elasticity solutions for thick beams with a prescribed accuracy by selecting sufficient sampling surfaces. Each of the fundamental beam unknowns is then invariantly expanded as Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind, and the problems are stated in variational form with the aid of the penalty technique and Lagrange multipliers, which provide complete flexibility to describe any arbitrary boundary conditions. Finally, the desired solutions are obtained by the variational operation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple pole residue approach for 3D BEM analysis of mathematical degenerate and non‐degenerate materials

In this paper we develop an alternative boundary element method (BEM) formulation for the analysis of anisotropic three‐dimensional (3D) elastic solids. Our implementation is based on the derivation of explicit expressions for the fundamental solution displacements and tractions, of general validity for any class of anisotropic materials, by means of Stroh formalism and Cauchy's residue theory. The resulting fundamental solution remains valid for mathematical degenerate cases when Stroh's eigenvalues are coincident, meanwhile it does not exhibit numerical instabilities for quasi‐degenerate cases when Stroh's eigenvalues are nearly equal. A multiple pole residue approach is followed, leading to general explicit expressions to evaluate the traction fundamental solution for poles of m‐multiplicity. Despite the existence of general displacement solutions in the literature, and for the sake of completeness, the same approach as for the traction solution is considered to derive the displacement fundamental solution as well. Based on these solutions, an explicit BEM approach for the numerical solution of 3D linear elastic problems for solids with general anisotropic behavior is presented. The analysis of cracked anisotropic solids is also considered. Details on the numerical implementation and its validation for degenerate cases are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element‐free method (BEFM) for two‐dimensional elastodynamic analysis using Laplace transform

In this paper, we present a direct meshless method of boundary integral equation (BIE), known as the boundary element‐free method (BEFM), for two‐dimensional (2D) elastodynamic problems that combines the BIE method for 2D elastodynamics in the Laplace‐transformed domain and the improved moving least‐squares (IMLS) approximation. The formulae for the BEFM for 2D elastodynamic problems are given, and the numerical procedures are also shown. The BEFM is a direct numerical method, in which the basic unknown quantities are the real solutions of the nodal variables, and the boundary conditions can be implemented directly and easily that leads to a greater computational precision. For the purpose of demonstration, some selected numerical examples are solved using the BEFM. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A dual BIE approach for large‐scale modelling of 3‐D electrostatic problems with the fast multipole boundary element method

A dual boundary integral equation (BIE) formulation is presented for the analysis of general 3‐D electrostatic problems, especially those involving thin structures. This dual BIE formulation uses a linear combination of the conventional BIE and hypersingular BIE on the entire boundary of a problem domain. Similar to crack problems in elasticity, the conventional BIE degenerates when the field outside a thin body is investigated, such as the electrostatic field around a thin conducting plate. The dual BIE formulation, however, does not degenerate in such cases. Most importantly, the dual BIE is found to have better conditioning for the equations using the boundary element method (BEM) compared with the conventional BIE, even for domains with regular shapes. Thus the dual BIE is well suited for implementation with the fast multipole BEM. The fast multipole BEM for the dual BIE formulation is developed based on an adaptive fast multiple approach for the conventional BIE. Several examples are studied with the fast multipole BEM code, including finite and infinite domain problems, bulky and thin plate structures, and simplified comb‐drive models having more than 440 thin beams with the total number of equations above 1.45 million and solved on a PC. The numerical results clearly demonstrate that the dual BIE is very effective in solving general 3‐D electrostatic problems, as well as special cases involving thin perfect conducting structures, and that the adaptive fast multipole BEM with the dual BIE formulation is very efficient and promising in solving large‐scale electrostatic problems. Copyright © 2007 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.     

Meshless analysis of potential problems in three dimensions with the hybrid boundary node method

Combining a modified functional with the moving least‐squares (MLS) approximation, the hybrid boundary node method (Hybrid BNM) is a truly meshless, boundary‐only method. The method may have advantages from the meshless local boundary integral equation (MLBIE) method and also the boundary node method (BNM). In fact, the Hybrid BNN requires only the discrete nodes located on the surface of the domain. The Hybrid BNM has been applied to solve 2D potential problems. In this paper, the Hybrid BNM is extended to solve potential problems in three dimensions. Formulations of the Hybrid BNM for 3D potential problems and the MLS approximation on a generic surface are developed. A general computer code of the Hybrid BNM is implemented in C++. The main drawback of the ‘boundary layer effect’ in the Hybrid BNM in the 2D case is circumvented by an adaptive face integration scheme. The parameters that influence the performance of this method are studied through three different geometries and known analytical fields. Numerical results for the solution of the 3D Laplace's equation show that high convergence rates with mesh refinement and high accuracy are achievable. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical analysis of dynamic debonding under 2D in-plane and 3D loading

We present a numerical scheme specially developed for 2D and 3D dynamic debonding problems. The method, referred to as spectral scheme, allows for a precise modeling of stationary and/or spontaneously expanding interfacial cracks of arbitrary shapes and subjected to an arbitrary combination of time- and space-dependent loading conditions. It is based on a spectral representation of the elastodynamic relations existing between the displacement components along the interface plane and the corresponding dynamic stresses. A general stress-based cohesive failure model is introduced to model the spontaneous progressive failure of the interface. The numerical scheme also allows for the introduction of a wide range of contact relations to model the possible interactions between the fracture surfaces. Simple 2D problems are used to investigate the accuracy and stability of the proposed scheme. Then, the spectral method is used in various 2D and 3D interfacial fracture problems, with special emphasis on the issue of the limiting speed for a spontaneously propagating debonding crack in the presence of frictional contact. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An advanced boundary element method for solving 2D and 3D static problems in Mindlin's strain‐gradient theory of elasticity

An advanced boundary element method (BEM) for solving two‐ (2D) and three‐dimensional (3D) problems in materials with microstructural effects is presented. The analysis is performed in the context of Mindlin's Form‐II gradient elastic theory. The fundamental solution of the equilibrium partial differential equation is explicitly derived. The integral representation of the problem, consisting of two boundary integral equations, one for displacements and the other for its normal derivative, is developed. The global boundary of the analyzed domain is discretized into quadratic line and quadrilateral elements for 2D and 3D problems, respectively. Representative 2D and 3D numerical examples are presented to illustrate the method, demonstrate its accuracy and efficiency and assess the gradient effect on the response. The importance of satisfying the correct boundary conditions in gradient elastic problems is illustrated with the solution of simple 2D problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effective Condition Number for Boundary Knot Method

This study makes the first attempt to apply the effective condition number (ECN) to the stability analysis of the boundary knot method (BKM). We find that the ECN is a superior criterion over the traditional condition number. The main difference between ECN and the traditional condition numbers is in that the ECN takes into account the right hand side vector to estimates system stability. Numerical results show that the ECN is roughly inversely proportional to the numerical accuracy. Meanwhile, using the effective condition number as an indicator, one can fine-tune the user-defined parameters (without the knowledge of exact solution) to ensure high numerical accuracy from the BKM.     

A non-linear transformation applied to boundary layer effect and thin-body effect in BEM for 2D potential problems

The accurate numerical evaluation of nearly singular integrals plays an important role in many engineering applications. In general, these include evaluating the solution near the boundary or treating problems with thin domains, which are respectively named the boundary layer effect and the thin-body effect in the boundary element method. Although many methods of evaluating nearly singular integrals have been developed in recent years with varying degrees of success, questions still remain. In this article, a general non-linear transformation for evaluating nearly singular integrals over curved two-dimensional (2D) boundary elements is employed and applied to treat boundary layer effect and thin-body effect occurring in 2D potential problems. The introduced transformation can remove or damp out the rapid variations of nearly singular kernels and extremely high accuracy of numerical results can be achieved without increasing other computational efforts. Extensive numerical experiments indicate that the proposed transformation will be more efficient, in terms of the necessary integration points and central processing unit-time, compared to previous transformation methods, especially for dealing with thin-body problems.     

A fast boundary cloud method for 3D exterior electrostatic analysis

An accelerated boundary cloud method (BCM) for boundary‐only analysis of 3D electrostatic problems is presented here. BCM uses scattered points unlike the classical boundary element method (BEM) which uses boundary elements to discretize the surface of the conductors. BCM combines the weighted least‐squares approach for the construction of approximation functions with a boundary integral formulation for the governing equations. A linear base interpolating polynomial that can vary from cloud to cloud is employed. The boundary integrals are computed by using a cell structure and different schemes have been used to evaluate the weakly singular and non‐singular integrals. A singular value decomposition (SVD) based acceleration technique is employed to solve the dense linear system of equations arising in BCM. The performance of BCM is compared with BEM for several 3D examples. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of 2‐D Green's boundary formula and its normal derivative using Legendre polynomials,with an application to acoustic scattering problems

This paper presents the non‐singular forms, in a global sense, of two‐dimensional Green's boundary formula and its normal derivative. The main advantage of the modified formulations is that they are amenable to solution by directly applying standard quadrature formulas over the entire integration domain; that is, the proposed element‐free method requires only nodal data. The approach includes expressing the unknown function as a truncated Fourier–Legendre series, together with transforming the integration interval [a, b] to [‐1,1] ; the series coefficients are thus to be determined. The hypersingular integral, interpreted in the Hadamard finite‐part sense, and some weakly singular integrals can be evaluated analytically; the remaining integrals are regular with the limiting values of the integrands defined explicitly when a source point coincides with a field point. The effectiveness of the modified formulations is examined by an elliptic cylinder subject to prescribed boundary conditions. The regularization is further applied to acoustic scattering problems. The well‐known Burton–Miller method, using a linear combination of the surface Helmholtz integral equation and its normal derivative, is adopted to overcome the non‐uniqueness problem. A general non‐singular form of the composite equation is derived. Comparisons with analytical solutions for acoustically soft and hard circular cylinders are made. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A scaled boundary radial point interpolation method for 2‐D elasticity problems

The scaled boundary radial point interpolation method (SBRPIM), a new semi‐analytical technique, is introduced and applied to the analysis of the stress–strain problems. The proposed method combines the advantages of the scaled boundary finite element method and the boundary radial point interpolation method. In this method, no mesh is required, nodes are scattered only on the boundary of the domain, no fundamental solution is required, and as the shape functions constructed based on the radial point interpolation method possess the Kronecker delta function property, the boundary conditions of problems can be imposed accurately without additional efforts. The main ideas of the SBRPIM are introducing a new method based on boundary scattered nodes without the need to element connectivity information, satisfying Kronecker delta function property, and being capable to handle singular problems. The equations of the SBRPIM in stress–strain fields are outlined in this paper. Several benchmark examples of 2‐D elastostatic are analyzed to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. It is found that the SBRPIM is very easy to implement and the obtained results of the proposed method show a very good agreement with the analytical solution. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A posteriori error estimates and adaptive procedures for the meshless Galerkin boundary node method for 3D potential problems

The Galerkin boundary node method (GBNM) is a boundary only meshless method that combines variational formulations of boundary integral equations with the moving least-squares approximations. This paper presents the mathematical derivation of a posteriori error estimates and adaptive refinement procedures for the GBNM for 3D potential problems. Two types of error estimators are developed in detail. One is a perturbation error estimator that is formulated based on the difference between numerical solutions obtained using two successive nodal arrangements. The other is a projection error estimator that is formulated based on the difference between the GBNM solution itself and its L²-orthogonal projection. The reliability and efficiency of both types of error estimators is established. That is, these error estimators are proven to have an upper and a lower bound by the constant multiples of the exact error in the energy norm. A localization technique is introduced to accommodate the non-local property of integral operators for the needed local and computable a posteriori error indicators. Convergence analysis results of corresponding adaptive meshless procedures are also given. Numerical examples with high singularities illustrate the theoretical results and show that the proposed adaptive procedures are simple, effective and efficient.     

Convergence analysis of a hierarchical enrichment of Dirichlet boundary conditions in a mesh‐free method

Implementation of Dirichlet boundary conditions in mesh‐free methods is problematic. In Wagner and Liu (International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 2001; 50 :507), a hierarchical enrichment technique is introduced that allows a simple implementation of the Dirichlet boundary conditions. In this paper, we provide some error analysis for the hierarchical enrichment mesh‐free technique. We derive optimal order error estimates for the hierarchical enrichment mesh‐free interpolants. For one‐dimensional elliptic boundary value problems, we can directly apply the interpolation error estimates to obtain error estimates for the mesh‐free solutions. For higher‐dimensional problems, derivation of error estimates for the mesh‐free solutions depends on the availability of an inverse inequality. Numerical examples in 1D and 2D are included showing the convergence behaviour of mesh‐free interpolants and mesh‐free solutions when the hierarchical enrichment mesh‐free technique is employed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.