A fast multipole boundary element method for 2D multi-domain elastostatic problems based on a dual BIE formulation

A new fast multipole formulation for the hypersingular BIE (HBIE) for 2D elasticity is presented in this paper based on a complex-variable representation of the kernels, similar to the formulation developed earlier for the conventional BIE (CBIE). A dual BIE formulation using a linear combination of the developed CBIE and HBIE is applied to analyze multi-domain problems with thin inclusions or open cracks. Two pre-conditioners for the fast multipole boundary element method (BEM) are devised and their effectiveness and efficiencies in solving large-scale problems are discussed. Several numerical examples are presented to study the accuracy and efficiency of the developed fast multipole BEM using the dual BIE formulation. The numerical results clearly demonstrate the potentials of the fast multipole BEM for solving large-scale 2D multi-domain elasticity problems. The method can be applied to study composite materials, functionally-graded materials, and micro-electro-mechanical-systems with coupled fields, all of which often involve thin shapes or thin inclusions.     

An adaptive fast multipole boundary element method for three-dimensional acoustic wave problems based on the Burton–Miller formulation

The high solution costs and non-uniqueness difficulties in the boundary element method (BEM) based on the conventional boundary integral equation (CBIE) formulation are two main weaknesses in the BEM for solving exterior acoustic wave problems. To tackle these two weaknesses, an adaptive fast multipole boundary element method (FMBEM) based on the Burton–Miller formulation for 3-D acoustics is presented in this paper. In this adaptive FMBEM, the Burton–Miller formulation using a linear combination of the CBIE and hypersingular BIE (HBIE) is applied to overcome the non-uniqueness difficulties. The iterative solver generalized minimal residual (GMRES) and fast multipole method (FMM) are adopted to improve the overall computational efficiency. This adaptive FMBEM for acoustics is an extension of the adaptive FMBEM for 3-D potential problems developed by the authors recently. Several examples on large-scale acoustic radiation and scattering problems are presented in this paper which show that the developed adaptive FMBEM can be several times faster than the non-adaptive FMBEM while maintaining the accuracies of the BEM.     

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.     

On the conventional boundary integral equation formulation for piezoelectric solids with defects or of thin shapes

In this paper, the conventional boundary integral equation (BIE) formulation for piezoelectric solids is revisited and the related issues are examined. The key relations employed in deriving the piezoelectric BIE, such as the generalized Green's identity (reciprocal work theorem) and integral identities for the piezoelectric fundamental solution, are established rigorously. A weakly singular form of the piezoelectric BIE is derived for the first time using the identities for the fundamental solution, which eliminates the calculation of any singular integrals in the piezoelectric boundary element method (BEM). The crucial question of whether or not the piezoelectric BIE will degenerate when applied to crack and thin shell-like problems is addressed. It is shown analytically that the conventional BIE for piezoelectricity does degenerate for crack problems, but does not degenerate for thin piezoelectric shells. The latter has significant implications in applications of the piezoelectric BIE to the analysis of thin piezoelectric films used widely as sensors and actuators. Numerical tests to show the degeneracy of the piezoelectric BIE for crack problems are presented and one remedy to this degeneracy by using the multi-domain BEM is also demonstrated.     

Dual BIE approaches for modeling electrostatic MEMS problems with thin beams and accelerated by the fast multipole method

Three boundary integral equation (BIE) formulations are investigated for the analysis of electrostatic fields exterior to thin-beam structures as found in some micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). The three BIE formulations are: (1) the regular BIE using only the single-layer potential; (2) the dual BIE (a) using the regular BIE on one surface of a beam and the gradient BIE on the other surface; and (3) the dual BIE (b) using a linear combination of the regular BIE and gradient BIE on all the surfaces of the beam. Similar to crack problems in elasticity, the regular BIE degenerates when the beam thickness tends to zero, while the two dual BIE formulations do not degenerate. Most importantly, the dual BIE (b) is found to be well conditioned for all the values of the beam thickness, and thus well suited for implementation with the fast multipole BEM. The fast multipole BEM for both the regular BIE and the dual BIE (b) formulations are developed and tested on a simplified comb-drive model. The numerical results clearly show that the dual BIEs are very effective in solving MEMS problems with thin beams and the fast multipole BEM with the dual BIE (b) formulation is very efficient in solving large-scale MEMS models.     

Non-singular boundary integral equation implementation

The basis of the boundary integral equation (BIE) development is the singular field solution for the Kelvin point load problem. The presence of the mathematical singularity in an otherwise non-singular problem has created over the years a variety of numerical coping strategies. The current paper extends some of the earlier works in a simple manner that eliminates the mathematical singularity through analytical integration of the critical terms. The resulting formulation is fully non-singular and is shown to be amenable to simple, low-order Gaussian integration. The critical class of problems involving thin sections and/or highly graded BIE meshes now can be solved without previous problems and concerns the accuracy of the numerical integrations used in creating the linear BIE equations. Extension of the formulation approach to remove hypersingular formulation problems in fracture mechanics is seen to be a future beneficiary of the semi-analytical BIE implementation reported herein.     

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.     

A boundary integral equation method for radiation and scattering of elastic waves in three dimensions

A vector boundary integral equation (BIE) formulation and numerical solution procedure is presented for problems of three-dimensional elastic wave radiation and scattering from arbitrarily shaped obstacles. The formulation is explicitly in terms of surface traction and displacement, rather than wave potentials, and the BIE on which numerical work is based is written in a form entirely free of Cauchy principal value integrals. Indeed, the subsequent computational process, based on quadratic isoparametric boundary elements, renders all integrals free of singularities, so that ordinary Gaussian quadrature may be used. Numerical examples include scattering from spherical surfaces and radiation from a cube.     

A comparison of techniques for overcoming non‐uniqueness of boundary integral equations for the collocation partition of unity method in two‐dimensional acoustic scattering

The Partition of Unity Method has become an attractive approach for extending the allowable frequency range for wave simulations beyond that available using piecewise polynomial elements. The non‐uniqueness of solution obtained from the conventional boundary integral equation (CBIE) is well known. The CBIE derived through Green's identities suffers from a problem of non‐uniqueness at certain characteristic frequencies. Two of the standard methods of overcoming this problem are the so‐called Combined Helmholtz Integral Equation Formulation (CHIEF) method and that of Burton and Miller. The latter method introduces a hypersingular integral, which may be treated in various ways. In this paper, we present the collocation partition of unity boundary element method (PUBEM) for the Helmholtz problem and compare the performance of CHIEF against a Burton–Miller formulation regularised using the approach of Li and Huang. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analyzing interaction between coplanar square cracks using an efficient boundary element‐free method

This paper examines the interaction between coplanar square cracks by combining the moving least‐squares (MLS) approximation and the derived boundary integral equation (BIE). A new traction BIE involving only the Cauchy singular kernels is derived by applying integration by parts to the traditional boundary integral formulation. The new traction BIE can be directly applied to a crack surface and no displacement BIE is necessary because all crack boundary conditions (both upper and lower ones) are incorporated. A boundary element‐free method is then developed by combining the derived BIE and MLS approximation, in which the crack opening displacement is first expressed as the product of weight functions and the characteristic terms, and the unknown weight is approximated with the MLS approximation. The efficiency of the developed method is tested for isotropic and transversely isotropic media. The interaction between two and three coplanar square cracks in isotropic elastic body is numerically studied and the case of any number of coplanar square cracks is deduced and discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of shell-like structures by the Boundary Element Method based on 3-D elasticity: formulation and verification

In this paper, the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for 3-D elastostatic problems is studied for the analysis of shell or shell-like structures. It is shown that the conventional boundary integral equation (CBIE) for 3-D elasticity does not degenerate when applied to shell-like structures, contrary to the case when it is applied to crack-like problems where it does degenerate due to the closeness of the two crack surfaces. The treatment of the nearly singular integrals, which is a crucial step in the applications of BIEs to thin shapes, is presented in detail. To verify the theory, numerical examples of spherical and ellipsoidal vessels are presented using the BEM approach developed in this paper. It is found that the system of equations using the CBIE is well conditioned for all the thickness studied for the vessels. The advantages, disadvantages and potential applications of the proposed BEM approach to shell-like structures, as compared with the FEM regarding modelling and accuracy, are discussed in the last section. Applications of this BEM approach to shell-like structures with non-uniform thickness, stiffeners and layers will be reported in a subsequent paper. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary integral equation analysis for radiation and scattering of elastic waves in three dimensions

Abstract

In this paper, the boundary integral equation (BIE) method is employed to investigate the radiation and scattering of time‐harmonic elastic waves by obstacles of arbitrary shape embedded in an infinite medium. Based on the vector BIE, entirely free of Cauchy principal value integrals, an efficient numerical scheme using quadratic isoparametric boundary elements is proposed. Furthermore, the difficulty of non‐uniquess of a solution inherent with BIE formulations for exterior elastodynamic problems is studied numerically and analytically. The counterparts of the combined Helmholtz integral formulation method for elastodynamics together with the least‐square or Lagrange‐multiplier technique are derived and applied to overcome this difficulty successfully. In addition, the elastic‐wave fields radiated or scattered by either a spherical cavity or a rigid sphere in an infinite medium are calculated and the results are compared with the analytical solutions to demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of the proposed numerical scheme.     

A new boundary element method for mixed boundary value problems involving cracks and holes: Interactions between rigid inclusions and cracks

This paper derives a new boundary integral equation (BIE) formulation for plane elastic bodies containing cracks and holes and subjected to mixed displacement/ traction boundary conditions, and proposes a new boundary element method (BEM) based upon this formulation. The basic unknown in the formulation is a complex boundary function H(t), which is a linear combination of the boundary traction and boundary displacement density. The present BIE formulation can be related directly to Muskhelishvili's formalism. Singular interpolation functions of order r ^–1/2 (where r is the distance measured from the crack tip) are introduced such that singular integrand involved at the element level can be integrated analytically. By applying the BEM, the interaction between a rigid circular inclusion and a crack is investigated in details. Our results for the stress intensity factor are comparable with those given by Erdogan and Gupta (1975) and Gharpuray et al. (1990) for a crack emanating from a stiff inclusion, and with those by Erdogan et al. (1974) for a crack in the neighborhood of a stiff inclusion.     

Identities for the fundamental solution of thin plate bending problems and the nonuniqueness of the hypersingular BIE solution for multi-connected domains

Four integral identities for the fundamental solution of thin plate bending problems are presented in this paper. These identities can be derived by imposing rigid-body translation and rotation solutions to the two direct boundary integral equations (BIEs) for plate bending problems, or by integrating directly the governing equation for the fundamental solution. These integral identities can be used to develop weakly-singular and nonsingular forms of the BIEs for plate bending problems. They can also be employed to show the nonuniqueness of the solution of the hypersingular BIE for plates on multi-connected (or multiply-connected) domains. This nonuniqueness is shown for the first time in this paper. It is shown that the solution of the singular (deflection) BIE is unique, while the hypersingular (rotation) BIE can admit an arbitrary rigid-body translation term in the deflection solution, on the edge of a hole. However, since both the singular and hypersingular BIEs are required in solving a plate bending problem using the boundary element method (BEM), the BEM solution is always unique on edges of holes in plates on multi-connected domains. Numerical examples of plates with holes are presented to show the correctness and effectiveness of the BEM for multi-connected domain problems.     

Direct boundary integral equations for elastodynamics in 3-D half-spaces

Vector boundary integral equations (BIE's) based on Somigliana's integral formula are presented with Stokes' (full-space) and Lamb's (half-space) fundamental tensors (Green's functions), for radiation and scattering of time-harmonic elastic waves by bodies embedded in or laying on the surface of a three-dimensional homogeneous, isotropic, linear-elastic half-space. Numerical work is based on BIEs free from principal-value integrals. Whereas the Stokes'-tensor BIE requires discretization of the infinite half-space surface, all discretization is confined to (finite) surfaces of the body when Lamb's tensors are used. The nonuniqueness of the integral equation solution at fictitious eigenfrequencies is addressed. Numerical results are presented for a rigid circular footing, a rigid hemispherical foundation and a fully embedded spherical cavity.     

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.     

Dual boundary integral equation formulation in antiplane elasticity using complex variable

This paper investigates the dual boundary integral equation formulation in antiplane elasticity using complex variable. Four kinds of boundary integral equation (BIE) are studied, and they are the first complex variable BIE for the interior region, the second complex variable BIE for the interior region, the first complex variable BIE for the exterior region, and the second complex variable BIE for the exterior region. The first BIE for the interior region is derived from the Somigliana identity, or the Betti’s reciprocal theorem in elasticity. A displacement versus traction operator is suggested. After using this operator, the second BIE for the interior region is derived. Similar derivations are performed for the first and second BIEs for the exterior region. In the case of the exterior boundary, two degenerate boundary cases are studied. One is the curved crack case, and other is the case of a deformable line. All kernels in the suggested BIEs are expressed in terms of complex variable.     

3-D dynamic interaction between a penny-shaped crack and a thin interlayer joining two elastic half-spaces

Three-dimensional (3-D) elastodynamic interaction between a penny-shaped crack and a thin elastic interlayer joining two elastic half-spaces is investigated by an improved boundary integral equation method or boundary element method. The penny-shaped crack is embedded in one of the half-spaces, perpendicular to the interlayer and subjected to a time-harmonic tensile loading on its surfaces. Effective “spring-like” boundary conditions are applied to approximate the effects of the thin layer in the mathematical model. Integral representations for the displacement and the stress components are derived by using modified Green’s functions, which satisfy the “spring-like” boundary conditions identically. Then, application of the dynamic loading condition on the crack-surfaces results in a boundary integral equation (BIE) for the crack-opening-displacement over the crack-surfaces only. A solution procedure is developed for solving the BIE numerically. Numerical results for the mode-I dynamic stress intensity factor (SIF) are presented and discussed to show the variations of the mode-I dynamic SIF with the angular coordinate of the crack-front points, the dimensionless wave number, the material mismatch and the crack-layer distance.     

A new fast multipole boundary element method for solving large‐scale two‐dimensional elastostatic problems

A new fast multipole boundary element method (BEM) is presented in this paper for large‐scale analysis of two‐dimensional (2‐D) elastostatic problems based on the direct boundary integral equation (BIE) formulation. In this new formulation, the fundamental solution for 2‐D elasticity is written in a complex form using the two complex potential functions in 2‐D elasticity. In this way, the multipole and local expansions for 2‐D elasticity BIE are directly linked to those for 2‐D potential problems. Furthermore, their translations (moment to moment, moment to local, and local to local) turn out to be exactly the same as those in the 2‐D potential case. This formulation is thus very compact and more efficient than other fast multipole approaches for 2‐D elastostatic problems using Taylor series expansions of the fundamental solution in its original form. Several numerical examples are presented to study the accuracy and efficiency of the developed fast multipole BEM formulation and code. BEM models with more than one million equations have been solved successfully on a laptop computer. These results clearly demonstrate the potential of the developed fast multipole BEM for solving large‐scale 2‐D elastostatic problems. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integral equation formulation for thin shells—revisited

While the matter of solving problems in fracture mechanics with boundary integral equations (BIEs) has received considerable attention, the “conjugate” problem of thin shells has received less. The latter problem is revisited in this work. The attempt here is to clarify certain issues that were not fully addressed in earlier publications. In particular, the issue of consistency of the relevant regularized boundary integral equations, when collocated at corresponding points on two sides of a thin shell, is addressed carefully. Some comments on the corresponding BIE formulation for fracture mechanics problems are made at the end of the paper in order to compare and contrast these two problems.