Non‐local boundary integral formulation for softening damage

A strongly non‐local boundary element method (BEM) for structures with strain‐softening damage treated by an integral‐type operator is developed. A plasticity model with yield limit degradation is implemented in a boundary element program using the initial‐stress boundary element method with iterations in each load increment. Regularized integral representations and boundary integral equations are used to avoid the difficulties associated with numerical computation of singular integrals. A numerical example is solved to verify the physical correctness and efficiency of the proposed formulation. The example consists of a softening strip perforated by a circular hole, subjected to tension. The strain‐softening damage is described by a plasticity model with a negative hardening parameter. The local formulation is shown to exhibit spurious sensitivity to cell mesh refinements, localization of softening damage into a band of single‐cell width, and excessive dependence of energy dissipation on the cell size. By contrast, the results for the non‐local theory are shown to be free of these physically incorrect features. Compared to the classical non‐local finite element approach, an additional advantage is that the internal cells need to be introduced only within the small zone (or band) in which the strain‐softening damage tends to localize within the structure. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element analysis of ductile crack growth using the traction-free fundamental solution

A new boundary element formulation in two-dimensional rate-independent plasticity is given. This new formulation uses a so-called traction-free fundamental solution so that the resulting boundary integral equation converges in the normal sense, and more important, a formal differentiation of the boundary integral equation leads to a valid integral representation for the in-plane stress component on the boundary. No finite difference approximation is needed to construct the stress recovery routine. The new boundary element method is then used to solve the problem of quasi-static ductile crack growth. Numerical simulations based on a set of experimental data have been carried out to evaluate a new path-independent integral,T* _M . TheT* _M ,-integral is a modified version of Atluri'sT*-integral. This modified version has an advantage of having a less singular domain integral near the crack flank so that it is numericaly preferable toT*.     

Symmetric Galerkin boundary element method in plasticity and gradient plasticity

A boundary integral equation (BIE) formulation and a boundary element (BE) method which confer symmetry to key operators are concisely described with reference to quasi-static plasticity. This formulation is based on the combined use of static and kinematic sources, on Galerkin weighted residual enforcement of integral equations for displacements and tractions along the boundary and for stresses in the potentially yielding domain and on space discretizations in terms of generalized variables in Prager's sense. Typical theoretical results of computational interest not available in conventional nonsymmetric BE methods are surveyed. The subjectivity (mesh-dependence) implied by material instability is illustrated by examples. As a remedy, a symmetric BIE-BE formulation for nonlocal, gradient-dependent plasticity is developed and discussed on the basis of its variationally consistent discretization.Extended version of a key-note lecture at the 4th International Conference on Computational Plasticity, Barcelona, April 3–6, 1995.Dedicated to J. C. Simo     

An immersed finite element method with integral equation correction

We propose a robust immersed finite element method in which an integral equation formulation is used to enforce essential boundary conditions. The solution of a boundary value problem is expressed as the superposition of a finite element solution and an integral equation solution. For computing the finite element solution, the physical domain is embedded into a slightly larger Cartesian (box‐shaped) domain and is discretized using a block‐structured mesh. The defect in the essential boundary conditions, which occurs along the physical domain boundaries, is subsequently corrected with an integral equation method. In order to facilitate the mapping between the finite element and integral equation solutions, the physical domain boundary is represented with a signed distance function on the block‐structured mesh. As a result, only a boundary mesh of the physical domain is necessary and no domain mesh needs to be generated, except for the non‐boundary‐conforming block‐structured mesh. The overall approach is first presented for the Poisson equation and then generalized to incompressible viscous flow equations. As an example of fluid–structure coupling, the settling of a heavy rigid particle in a closed tank is considered. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Displacement gradients in BEM formulation for small strain plasticity

In the present work, we propose a consistent derivation of the regularized integral representations for displacement gradients within the boundary element formulation for solution of small strain plasticity problems. The regularization is carried out for both the domain and boundary integrals before any discretization and approximation of integral densities. Two kinds of the integral representations are derived with the leading singularity of the integral kernels being either hypersingularity or strong singularity. Both the two- and three-dimensional problems are considered simultaneously.     

Convolution quadrature method‐based symmetric Galerkin boundary element method for 3‐d elastodynamics

The boundary integral equations in 3‐d elastodynamics contain convolution integrals with respect to the time. They can be performed analytically or with the convolution quadrature method. The latter time‐stepping procedure's benefit is the usage of the Laplace‐transformed fundamental solution. Therefore, it is possible to apply this method also to problems where analytical time‐dependent fundamental solutions might not be known. To obtain a symmetric formulation, the second boundary integral equation has to be used which, unfortunately, requires special care in the numerical implementation since it involves hypersingular kernel functions. Therefore, a regularization for closed surfaces of the Laplace‐transformed elastodynamic kernel functions is presented which transforms the bilinear form of the hypersingular integral operator to a weakly singular one. Supplementarily, a weakly singular formulation of the Laplace‐transformed elastodynamic double layer potential is presented. This results in a time domain boundary element formulation involving at least only weakly singular integral kernels. Finally, numerical studies validate this approach with respect to different spatial and time discretizations. Further, a comparison with the wider used collocation method is presented. It is shown numerically that the presented formulation exhibits a good convergence rate and a more stable behavior compared with collocation methods. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Plane stress and plate bending coupling in BEM analysis of shallow shells

In this paper the shear deformable shallow shells are analysed by boundary element method. New boundary integral equations are derived utilizing the Betti's reciprocity principle and coupling boundary element formulation of shear deformable plate and two‐dimensional plane stress elasticity. Two techniques, direct integral method (DIM) and dual reciprocity method (DRM), are developed to transform domain integrals to boundary integrals. The force term is approximted by a set of radial basis functions. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the two methods. The accuracy of results obtained by using boundary element method are compared with exact solutions and the finite element method. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

hp Fast multipole boundary element method for 3D acoustics

A fast multipole boundary element method (FMBEM) extended by an adaptive mesh refinement algorithm for solving acoustic problems in three‐dimensional space is presented in this paper. The Collocation method is used, and the Burton–Miller formulation is employed to overcome the fictitious eigenfrequencies arising for exterior domain problems. Because of the application of the combined integral equation, the developed FMBEM is feasible for all positive wave numbers even up to high frequencies. In order to evaluate the hypersingular integral resulting from the Burton–Miller formulation of the boundary integral equation, an integration technique for arbitrary element order is applied. The fast multipole method combined with an arbitrary order h‐p mesh refinement strategy enables accurate computation of large‐scale systems. Numerical examples substantiate the high accuracy attainable by the developed FMBEM, while requiring only moderate computational effort at the same time. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element formulation for plane problems in size‐dependent piezoelectricity

A new boundary element formulation is developed to analyze two‐dimensional size‐dependent piezoelectric response in isotropic dielectric materials. The model is based on the recently developed consistent couple stress theory, in which the couple‐stress tensor is skew‐symmetric. For isotropic materials, there is no classical piezoelectricity, and the size‐dependent piezoelectricity or flexoelectricity effect is solely the result of coupling of polarization to the skew‐symmetric mean curvature tensor. As a result, the size‐dependent effect is specified by one characteristic length scale parameter l, and the electromechanical effect is specified by one flexoelectric coefficient f. Interestingly, in this size‐dependent multi‐physics model, the governing equations are decoupled. However, the problem is coupled, because of the existence of a flexoelectric effect in the boundary couple‐traction and normal electric displacement. We discuss the boundary integral formulation and numerical implementation of this size‐dependent piezoelectric boundary element method, which provides a boundary‐only formulation involving displacements, rotations, force‐tractions, couple‐tractions, electric potential, and normal electric displacement as primary variables. Afterwards, we apply the resulting BEM formulation to several computational problems to confirm the validity of the numerical implementation and to explore the physics of the flexoelectric coupling. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element analysis of three‐dimensional cracks in anisotropic solids

This paper presents a boundary element analysis of linear elastic fracture mechanics in three‐dimensional cracks of anisotropic solids. The method is a single‐domain based, thus it can model the solids with multiple interacting cracks or damage. In addition, the method can apply the fracture analysis in both bounded and unbounded anisotropic media and the stress intensity factors (SIFs) can be deduced directly from the boundary element solutions. The present boundary element formulation is based on a pair of boundary integral equations, namely, the displacement and traction boundary integral equations. While the former is collocated exclusively on the uncracked boundary, the latter is discretized only on one side of the crack surface. The displacement and/or traction are used as unknown variables on the uncracked boundary and the relative crack opening displacement (COD) (i.e. displacement discontinuity, or dislocation) is treated as a unknown quantity on the crack surface. This formulation possesses the advantages of both the traditional displacement boundary element method (BEM) and the displacement discontinuity (or dislocation) method, and thus eliminates the deficiency associated with the BEMs in modelling fracture behaviour of the solids. Special crack‐front elements are introduced to capture the crack‐tip behaviour. Numerical examples of stress intensity factors (SIFs) calculation are given for transversely isotropic orthotropic and anisotropic solids. For a penny‐shaped or a square‐shaped crack located in the plane of isotropy, the SIFs obtained with the present formulation are in very good agreement with existing closed‐form solutions and numerical results. For the crack not aligned with the plane of isotropy or in an anisotropic solid under remote pure tension, mixed mode fracture behavior occurs due to the material anisotropy and SIFs strongly depend on material anisotropy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the evaluation of damping in MEMS in the slip–flow regime

The analysis of fluid damping in micro‐electro‐mechanical systems (MEMS) is addressed. A mixed fast multipole boundary element method based on both velocity and traction integral equations is employed and adapted in order to account for slip boundary conditions. The formulation presented is applied to the analysis of a biaxial accelerometer and validated with experimental results. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The simple boundary element method for multiple cracks in functionally graded media governed by potential theory: a three‐dimensional Galerkin approach

The simple boundary element method consists of recycling existing codes for homogeneous media to solve problems in non‐homogeneous media while maintaining a purely boundary‐only formulation. Within this scope, this paper presents a ‘simple’ Galerkin boundary element method for multiple cracks in problems governed by potential theory in functionally graded media. Steady‐state heat conduction is investigated for thermal conductivity varying either parabolically, exponentially, or trigonometrically in one or more co‐ordinates. A three‐dimensional implementation which merges the dual boundary integral equation technique with the Galerkin approach is presented. Special emphasis is given to the treatment of crack surfaces and boundary conditions. The test examples simulated with the present method are verified with finite element results using graded finite elements. The numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the present method especially when multiple interacting cracks are involved. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Post buckling analysis of shear deformable shallow shells by the boundary element method

This paper presents four boundary element formulations for post buckling analysis of shear deformable shallow shells. The main differences between the formulations rely on the way non‐linear terms are treated and on the number of degrees of freedom in the domain. Boundary integral equations are obtained by coupling boundary element formulation of shear deformable plate and two‐dimensional plane stress elasticity. Four different sets of non‐linear integral equations are presented. Some domain integrals are treated directly with domain discretization whereas others are dealt indirectly with the dual reciprocity method. Each set of non‐linear boundary integral equations are solved using an incremental approach, where loads and prescribed boundary conditions are applied in small but finite increments. The resulting systems of equations are solved using a purely incremental technique and the Newton–Raphson technique with the Arc length method. Finally, the effect of imperfections (obtained from a linear buckling analysis) on the post‐buckling behaviour of axially compressed shallow shells is investigated. Results of several benchmark examples are compared with the published work and good agreement is obtained. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Initial strain formulation without internal cells for elastoplastic analysis by triple‐reciprocity BEM

In general, internal cells are required to solve elastoplasticity problems using a conventional boundary element method (BEM). However, in this case, the merit of BEM, which is the easy method of preparation of data, is lost. The conventional multiple‐reciprocity boundary element method (MRBEM) cannot be used to solve the elastoplasticity problems because the distribution of initial strain or initial stress cannot be determined analytically. In this paper, we show that two‐dimensional elastoplasticity problems can be solved without the use of internal cells, by using the triple‐reciprocity boundary element method. An initial strain formulation is adopted and the initial strain distribution is interpolated using boundary integral equations. A new computer programme was developed and applied to several problems. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transient non‐linear heat conduction–radiation problems—a boundary element formulation

A novel boundary‐only formulation for transient temperature fields in bodies of non‐linear material properties and arbitrary non‐linear boundary conditions has been developed. The option for self‐irradiating boundaries has been included in the formulation. Heat conduction equation has been partially linearized by Kirchhoff's transformation. The result has been discretized by the dual reciprocity boundary element method. The integral equation of heat radiation has been discretized by the standard boundary element method. The coupling of the resulting two sets of equations has been accomplished by static condensation of the radiative heat fluxes arising in both sets. The final set of ordinary differential equations has been solved using the Runge–Kutta solver with automatic time step adjustment. The algorithm proved to be robust and stable. Numerical examples are included. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical study and numerical experiments for degenerate scale problems in the boundary element method for two‐dimensional elasticity

For a plane elasticity problem, the boundary integral equation approach has been shown to yield a non‐unique solution when geometry size is equal to a degenerate scale. In this paper, the degenerate scale problem in the boundary element method (BEM) is analytically studied using the method of stress function. For the elliptic domain problem, the numerical difficulty of the degenerate scale can be solved by using the hypersingular formulation instead of using the singular formulation in the dual BEM. A simple example is shown to demonstrate the failure using the singular integral equations of dual BEM. It is found that the degenerate scale also depends on the Poisson's ratio. By employing the hypersingular formulation in the dual BEM, no degenerate scale occurs since a zero eigenvalue is not embedded in the influence matrix for any case. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A boundary element method for analysis of thermoelastic deformations in materials with temperature dependent properties

In this paper, the boundary element method (BEM) for solving quasi‐static uncoupled thermoelasticity problems in materials with temperature dependent properties is presented. The domain integral term, in the integral representation of the governing equation, is transformed to an equivalent boundary integral by means of the dual reciprocity method (DRM). The required particular solutions are derived and outlined. The method ensures numerically efficient analysis of thermoelastic deformations in an arbitrary geometry and loading conditions. The validity and the high accuracy of the formulation is demonstrated considering a series of examples. In all numerical tests, calculation results are compared with analytical and/or finite element method (FEM) solutions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element analysis of curved cracked panels with adhesively bonded patches

A new boundary element formulation for analysis of curved cracked panels with adhesively bonded patches is presented in this paper. The effect of the adhesive layer is modelled by distributed body forces (i.e. two in‐plane forces, two moments and one out‐of‐plane force). A coupled boundary integral formulation of a shear deformable plate and two‐dimensional plane stress elasticity is used to determine bending and membrane forces along the adhesive layer taking into consideration the compatibility conditions in the patch area. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. It is shown that the out‐of‐plane bending behaviour and panel curvature have significant influence on the magnitude of the stress intensity factors. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element formulation for 3D transversely isotropic cracked bodies

The boundary traction integral representation is obtained in elasticity when the classical displacement representation is differentiated and combined according to Hooke's law. The use of both traction and displacement integral representations leads to a mixed (or dual) formulation of the BEM where the discretization effort for crack problems is much smaller than in the classical formulation. A boundary element analysis of three‐dimensional fracture mechanics problems of transversely isotropic solids based on the mixed formulation is presented in this paper. The hypersingular and strongly singular kernels appearing in the formulation are regularized by using two terms of the displacement series expansion and one term of the traction expansion, at the collocation point. All the remaining integrals are analytically evaluated or transformed by means of Stokes' theorem into regular or weakly singular integrals, which are numerically computed. The method is general and can be used for elements of any shape including quarter‐point crack front elements. No change of co‐ordinates is required for the integration. The formulation as presented in this paper is something as clear, general and easy to handle as the classical BE formulation. It is used in combination with three‐dimensional quadratic and quarter‐point elements to obtain accurate results for several different crack problems. Cracks in boundless and finite transversely isotropic domains are studied. The meshes are simple and include only discretization of the crack and the external boundary. The obtained results are in good agreement with those existing in the literature. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The traction boundary contour method for linear elasticity

This paper presents a further development of the boundary contour method. The boundary contour method is extended to cover the traction boundary integral equation. A traction boundary contour method is proposed for linear elastostatics. The formulation of traction boundary contour method is regular for points except the ends of the boundary element and corners. The present approach only requires line integrals for three‐dimensional problems and function evaluations at the ends of boundary elements for two‐dimensional cases. The implementation of the traction boundary contour method with quadratic boundary elements is presented for two‐dimensional problems. Numerical results are given for some two‐dimensional examples, and these are compared with analytical solutions. This method is shown to give excellent results for illustrative examples. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.