A MATRIX-FREE INTERPRETATION OF THE NON-LOCAL DIRICHLET-TO-NEUMANN RADIATION BOUNDARY CONDITION

This communication describes an efficient implementation of the non-local Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DtN) radiation boundary condition which arises in the solution of exterior problems in acoustics. Exterior problems in acoustics involve unbounded fluid domains whose finite element solution requires the introduction of a truncation boundary in order to obtain a finite computational domain. The non-local (DtN) condition is an exact non-reflecting boundary condition which is imposed on this truncation boundary. Unfortunately, the discretization of the non-local (DtN) boundary condition results in a dense, fully populated matrix whose storage and factorization become increasingly expensive. We describe here a matrix-free interpretation of the non-local (DtN) map suitable for iterative solution methods, which allows the use of this exact boundary condition without any storage penalties related to its non-local nature.     

ON OPEN BOUNDARIES IN THE FINITE ELEMENT APPROXIMATION OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL ADVECTION–DIFFUSION FLOWS

A steady-state and transient finite element model has been developed to approximate, with simple triangular elements, the two-dimensional advection–diffusion equation for practical river surface flow simulations. Essentially, the space–time Crank–Nicolson–Galerkin formulation scheme was used to solve for a given conservative flow-field. Several kinds of point sources and boundary conditions, namely Cauchy and Open, were theoretically and numerically analysed. Steady-state and transient numerical tests investigated the accuracy of boundary conditions on inflow, noflow and outflow boundaries where diffusion is important (diffusive boundaries). With the proper choice of boundary conditions, the steady-state Galerkin and the transient Crank–Nicolson–Galerkin finite element schemes gave stable and precise results for advection-dominated transport problems. Comparisons indicated that the present approach can give equivalent or more precise results than other streamline upwind and high-order time-stepping schemes. Diffusive boundaries can be treated with Cauchy conditions when the flow enters the domain (inflow), and with Open conditions when the flow leaves the domain (outflow), or when it is parallel to the boundary (noflow). Although systems with mainly diffusive noflow boundaries may still be solved precisely with Open conditions, they are more susceptible to be influenced by other numerical sources of error. Moreover, the treatment of open boundaries greatly increases the possibilities of correctly modelling restricted domains of actual and numerical interest. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accurate radiation boundary conditions for the time‐dependent wave equation on unbounded domains

Asymptotic and exact local radiation boundary conditions (RBC) for the scalar time‐dependent wave equation, first derived by Hagstrom and Hariharan, are reformulated as an auxiliary Cauchy problem for each radial harmonic on a spherical boundary. The reformulation is based on the hierarchy of local boundary operators used by Bayliss and Turkel which satisfy truncations of an asymptotic expansion for each radial harmonic. The residuals of the local operators are determined from the solution of parallel systems of linear first‐order temporal equations. A decomposition into orthogonal transverse modes on the spherical boundary is used so that the residual functions may be computed efficiently and concurrently without altering the local character of the finite element equations. Since the auxiliary functions are based on residuals of an asymptotic expansion, the proposed method has the ability to vary separately the radial and transverse modal orders of the RBC. With the number of equations in the auxiliary Cauchy problem equal to the transverse mode number, this reformulation is exact. In this form, the equivalence with the closely related non‐reflecting boundary condition of Grote and Keller is shown. If fewer equations are used, then the boundary conditions form high‐order accurate asymptotic approximations to the exact condition, with corresponding reduction in work and memory. Numerical studies are performed to assess the accuracy and convergence properties of the exact and asymptotic versions of the RBC. The results demonstrate that the asymptotic formulation has dramatically improved accuracy for time domain simulations compared to standard boundary treatments and improved efficiency over the exact condition. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Explicit finite element artificial boundary scheme for transient scalar waves in two‐dimensional unbounded waveguide

To simulate the transient scalar wave propagation in a two‐dimensional unbounded waveguide, an explicit finite element artificial boundary scheme is proposed, which couples the standard dynamic finite element method for complex near field and a high‐order accurate artificial boundary condition (ABC) for simple far field. An exact dynamic‐stiffness ABC that is global in space and time is constructed. A temporal localization method is developed, which consists of the rational function approximation in the frequency domain and the auxiliary variable realization into time domain. This method is applied to the dynamic‐stiffness ABC to result in a high‐order accurate ABC that is local in time but global in space. By discretizing the high‐order accurate ABC along artificial boundary and coupling the result with the standard lumped‐mass finite element equation of near field, a coupled dynamic equation is obtained, which is a symmetric system of purely second‐order ordinary differential equations in time with the diagonal mass and non‐diagonal damping matrices. A new explicit time integration algorithm in structural dynamics is used to solve this equation. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种高精度圆柱形人工边界条件:水-柱体相互作用问题

针对水-柱体动力相互作用问题,提出一种用于模拟无限域水体的圆柱形高精度时域人工边界条件。首先,基于三维可压缩水体的波动方程和边界条件,采用分离变量法建立了时空全局的精确人工边界条件;然后,将其动力刚度表示为外域模型和波导模型人工边界条件动力刚度的嵌套形式;之后,应用时间局部化方法得到时间局部的高精度人工边界条件;最后,离散高精度人工边界条件,并将其与近场有限元方程耦合,形成一种能够采用显式时间积分方法求解的时间二阶常微分方程组。数值算例表明:提出的三维圆柱形高精度人工边界条件精确、高效、稳定。     

A family of second‐order boundary dampers for finite element analysis of two and three‐dimensional problems in transient exterior acoustics

Numerical modelling of exterior acoustics problems involving infinite medium requires truncation of the medium at a finite distance from the obstacle or the structure and use of non‐reflecting boundary condition at this truncation surface to simulate the asymptotic behaviour of radiated waves at far field. In the context of the finite element method, Bayliss–Gunzburger–Turkel (BGT) boundary conditions are well suited since they are local in both space and time. These conditions involve ‘damper’ operators of various orders, which work on acoustic pressure p and they have been used in time harmonic problems widely and in transient problems in a limited way. Alternative forms of second‐order BGT operators, which work on ṗ (time derivative of p) had been suggested in an earlier paper for 3D problems but they were neither implemented nor validated. This paper presents detailed formulations of these second‐order dampers both for 2D and 3D problems, implements them in a finite element code and validates them using appropriate example problems. The developed code is capable of handling exterior acoustics problems involving both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种高阶精度人工边界条件:出平面外域波动问题

针对无限外域中的出平面波动问题,提出一种用于近场波动有限元分析的高阶精度人工边界条件。首先,采用变量分离法求解远场初边值问题,建立了时空全局的精确动力刚度人工边界条件;然后,发展了一种由有理函数近似和辅助变量实现构成的时间局部化方法,并将其应用于动力刚度人工边界条件,得到时间局部的高阶精度人工边界条件;最后,沿人工边界离散高阶精度人工边界条件,并将其与近场集中质量有限元方程耦合,形成对称的时间二阶常微分方程组,采用一种新的显式时间积分方法进行求解。数值算例表明:提出的高阶精度人工边界条件精确、高效、稳定并且容易在现有的有限元代码中实现。     

BOUNDARY ELEMENT–FINITE ELEMENT COUPLED EIGENANALYSIS OF FLUID–STRUCTURE SYSTEMS

The eigenanalysis of acoustical cavities with flexible structure boundaries, such as a fluid-filled container or an automobile cabin enclosure, is considered. An algebraic eigenvalue problem formulation for the fluid–structure problem is presented by combining the acoustic fluid boundary element eigenvalue analysis method and the structural finite elements. For many practical eigenproblems, use of finite elements to discretize the fluid domain leads to large stiffness and mass matrices. Since the acoustic boundary element discretization requires putting nodes only on the wetted surface of the structure, the size of the eigenproblem is reduced considerably, thus reducing the eigenvalue extraction effort. Futhermore, unlike in ordinary cases, the finite element discretization of pressure–displacement based fluid–structure problem gives rise to unsymmetric matrices. Therefore, the fact that the boundary element formulation produces unsymmetric matrices does not introduce additional difficulties here compared to the finite element case in the choice of an eigenvalue extraction procedure. Examples are included to demonstrate the fluid–structure eigenanalysis using boundary elements for the fluid domain and finite elements for the structure.     

Approximate imposition of boundary conditions in immersed boundary methods

We analyze several possibilities to prescribe boundary conditions in the context of immersed boundary methods. As basic approximation technique we consider the finite element method with a mesh that does not match the boundary of the computational domain, and therefore Dirichlet boundary conditions need to be prescribed in an approximate way. As starting variational approach we consider Nitsche's methods, and we then move to two options that yield non‐symmetric problems but that turned out to be robust and efficient. The essential idea is to use the degrees of freedom of certain nodes of the finite element mesh to minimize the difference between the exact and the approximated boundary condition. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fast BE‐FE coupling scheme for partly immersed bodies

Fluid–structure coupled problems are investigated to predict the vibro‐acoustic behavior of submerged bodies. The finite element method is applied for the structural part, whereas the boundary element method is used for the fluid domain. The focus of this paper is on partly immersed bodies. The fluid problem is favorably modeled by a half‐space formulation. This way, the Dirichlet boundary condition on the free fluid surface is incorporated by a half‐space fundamental solution. A fast multipole implementation is presented for the half‐space problem. In case of a high density of the fluid, the forces due to the acoustic pressure, which act on the structure, cannot be neglected. Thus, a strong coupling scheme is applied. An iterative solver is used to handle the coupled system. The efficiency of the proposed approach is discussed using a realistic model problem. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element formulation of exact non‐reflecting boundary conditions for the time‐dependent wave equation

A modified version of an exact Non‐reflecting Boundary Condition (NRBC) first derived by Grote and Keller is implemented in a finite element formulation for the scalar wave equation. The NRBC annihilate the first N wave harmonics on a spherical truncation boundary, and may be viewed as an extension of the second‐order local boundary condition derived by Bayliss and Turkel. Two alternative finite element formulations are given. In the first, the boundary operator is implemented directly as a ‘natural’ boundary condition in the weak form of the initial–boundary value problem. In the second, the operator is implemented indirectly by introducing auxiliary variables on the truncation boundary. Several versions of implicit and explicit time‐integration schemes are presented for solution of the finite element semidiscrete equations concurrently with the first‐order differential equations associated with the NRBC and an auxiliary variable. Numerical studies are performed to assess the accuracy and convergence properties of the NRBC when implemented in the finite element method. The results demonstrate that the finite element formulation of the (modified) NRBC is remarkably robust, and highly accurate. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the boundary conditions for the vector potential formulation in electrostatics

The vector potential formulation is a promising solution method for nonlinear electromechanically coupled boundary value problems. However, one of the drawbacks of this formulation is the non‐uniqueness of the (electric) vector potential in three dimensions. The present paper focuses on the Coulomb gauging method to overcome this problem. In particular, the corresponding gauging boundary conditions and their consistency with the physical boundary conditions are examined in detail. Furthermore, certain topological features like cavities and multiply connectedness of the domain of analysis are taken into account. Different variational/weak formulations being appropriate for finite element implementation are described. Finally, the suitability of these formulations is demonstrated in several numerical examples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling the transient interaction of a thin elastic shell with an exterior acoustic field

Coupled finite and boundary element methods for solving transient fluid–structure interaction problems are developed. The finite element method is used to model the radiating structure, and the boundary element method (BEM) is used to determine the resulting acoustic field. The well‐known stability problems of time domain BEMs are avoided by using a Burton–Miller‐type integral equation. The stability, accuracy and efficiency of two alternative solution methods are compared using an exact solution for the case of a thin spherical elastic shell. The convergence properties of the preferred solution method are then investigated more thoroughly. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A symmetric method for weakly imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions in embedded finite element meshes

In this paper, we propose a way to weakly prescribe Dirichlet boundary conditions in embedded finite element meshes. The key feature of the method is that the algorithmic parameter of the formulation which allows to ensure stability is independent of the numerical approximation, relatively small, and can be fixed a priori. Moreover, the formulation is symmetric for symmetric problems. An additional element-discontinuous stress field is used to enforce the boundary conditions in the Poisson problem. Additional terms are required in order to guarantee stability in the convection–diffusion equation and the Stokes problem. The proposed method is then easily extended to the transient Navier–Stokes equations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐reflecting artificial boundaries for transient scalar wave propagation in a two‐dimensional infinite homogeneous layer

This paper presents an exact non‐reflecting boundary condition for dealing with transient scalar wave propagation problems in a two‐dimensional infinite homogeneous layer. In order to model the complicated geometry and material properties in the near field, two vertical artificial boundaries are considered in the infinite layer so as to truncate the infinite domain into a finite domain. This treatment requires the appropriate boundary conditions, which are often referred to as the artificial boundary conditions, to be applied on the truncated boundaries. Since the infinite extension direction is different for these two truncated vertical boundaries, namely one extends toward x →∞ and another extends toward x→‐ ∞, the non‐reflecting boundary condition needs to be derived on these two boundaries. Applying the variable separation method to the wave equation results in a reduction in spatial variables by one. The reduced wave equation, which is a time‐dependent partial differential equation with only one spatial variable, can be further changed into a linear first‐order ordinary differential equation by using both the operator splitting method and the modal radiation function concept simultaneously. As a result, the non‐reflecting artificial boundary condition can be obtained by solving the ordinary differential equation whose stability is ensured. Some numerical examples have demonstrated that the non‐reflecting boundary condition is of high accuracy in dealing with scalar wave propagation problems in infinite and semi‐infinite media. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The scaled boundary finite element method in structural dynamics

The scaled boundary finite element method is extended to solve problems of structural dynamics. The dynamic stiffness matrix of a bounded (finite) domain is obtained as a continued fraction solution for the scaled boundary finite element equation. The inertial effect at high frequencies is modeled by high‐order terms of the continued fraction without introducing an internal mesh. By using this solution and introducing auxiliary variables, the equation of motion of the bounded domain is expressed in high‐order static stiffness and mass matrices. Standard procedures in structural dynamics can be applied to perform modal analyses and transient response analyses directly in the time domain. Numerical examples for modal and direct time‐domain analyses are presented. Rapid convergence is observed as the order of continued fraction increases. A guideline for selecting the order of continued fraction is proposed and validated. High computational efficiency is demonstrated for problems with stress singularity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hybrid discontinuous in space and time Galerkin method for wave propagation problems

Medium‐frequency regime and multi‐scale wave propagation problems have been a subject of active research in computational acoustics recently. New techniques have attempted to overcome the limitations of existing discretization methods that tend to suffer from dispersion. One such technique, the discontinuous enrichment method, incorporates features of the governing partial differential equation in the approximation, in particular, the solutions of the homogeneous form of the equation. Here, based on this concept and by extension of a conventional space–time finite element method, a hybrid discontinuous Galerkin method (DGM) for the numerical solution of transient problems governed by the wave equation in two and three spatial dimensions is described. The discontinuous formulation in both space and time enables the use of solutions to the homogeneous wave equation in the approximation. In this contribution, within each finite element, the solutions in the form of polynomial waves are employed. The continuity of these polynomial waves is weakly enforced through suitably chosen Lagrange multipliers. Results for two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional problems, in both low‐frequency and medium‐frequency regimes, show that the proposed DGM outperforms the conventional space–time finite element method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Coupled FE–BE method for eigenvalue analysis of elastic structures submerged in an infinite fluid domain

For thin elastic structures submerged in heavy fluid, e.g., water, a strong interaction between the structural domain and the fluid domain occurs and significantly alters the eigenfrequencies. Therefore, the eigenanalysis of the fluid–structure interaction system is necessary. In this paper, a coupled finite element and boundary element (FE–BE) method is developed for the numerical eigenanalysis of the fluid–structure interaction problems. The structure is modeled by the finite element method. The compressibility of the fluid is taken into consideration, and hence the Helmholtz equation is employed as the governing equation and solved by the boundary element method (BEM). The resulting nonlinear eigenvalue problem is converted into a small linear one by applying a contour integral method. Adequate modifications are suggested to improve the efficiency of the contour integral method and avoid missing the eigenvalues of interest. The Burton–Miller formulation is applied to tackle the fictitious eigenfrequency problem of the BEM, and the optimal choice of its coupling parameter is investigated for the coupled FE–BE method. Numerical examples are given and discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the developed FE–BE method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic analysis of dam–reservoir-foundation interaction in time domain

In this paper, a time domain dynamic analysis of the dam–reservoir-foundation interaction problem is developed by coupling the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) for the infinite reservoir and foundation domain and the finite element method for the finite dam domain. An efficient coupling procedure is formulated by using the substructuring method. Sharans boundary condition at the far end of the infinite fluid domain is implemented. To verify the proposed scheme, numerical examples are carried out and compared with available exact solutions and finite–finite element coupling results for the problem of the dam–reservoir interaction. Finally, a complete dam–reservoir-foundation interaction problem is solved and its solution is compared with previously published results.The author is thankful to the anonymous reviewer of this paper for his suggestions and comments, which improved considerably the present paper.