NEW NUMERICAL INTEGRATION SCHEMES FOR APPLICATIONS OF GALERKIN BEM TO 2-D PROBLEMS

We consider hypersingular integral formulation of some elasticity and potential boundary value problems on 2-D domains. In particular, we consider all integrals whose evaluation is required when the equations are solved by a Galerkin BEM based on piecewise polynomial approximants of arbitrary local degrees. In order to compute these integrals, we use very efficient formulas recently proposed, which require the user to define a mesh, not necessarily uniform, on the boundary and specify the local degrees of the approximant. These rules are quite suitable for the construction of h–p version of the BEM. Implementation of h−, p− and h–p methods are applied to some classical problems and several numerical results are presented. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR BOUNDARY ELEMENT ERROR ESTIMATION AND MESH REFINEMENT

The subject of this paper is the sensitivity analysis of approximate boundary element solutions with respect to the positions of the collocation points. The direct differentiation approach is considered here and the analysis is performed analytically. Since only the collocation points are perturbed, the shape of the body and the corresponding discretization remain unaltered. This aspect makes the present work quite different in spirit with respect to earlier analyses on shape sensitivities. Sensitivities of approximate BEM solutions with respect to the positions of collocation points are shown to be related to the residual of hypersingular integral equations. Numerical results confirm that the present approach can be seen as the analytical counterpart of an adaptive scheme for mesh refinement presented by the same author in some recent papers. Some other advantages of the present approach over the former one are also outlined.     

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

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

Hypersingular integrals at a corner

For a smooth boundary, hypersingular integrals can be defined as a limit from the interior, the approach direction being taken, for convenience, normal to the surface. At a boundary corner, the limit process, with a necessarily non-normal approach direction, provides a valid definition of the hypersingular equation, as long as the same direction is employed for all integrations. The terms which are potentially singular in the limit are shown to cancel, provided the function approximations at the corner are consistent. The analytical formulas for the singular integrals are more complicated than for a smooth surface, but are easily obtained using symbolic computation. These techniques have been employed to accurately solve the ‘L-shaped domain’ potential considered by Jaswon and Symm (Integral Equation Methods in Potential Theory and Elastostatics, Academic Press, New York, USA, 1977).     

Hypersingular integral formulation of elastic wave scattering

A hypersingular boundary integral formulation for calculating two dimensional elastic wave scattering from thin bodies and cracks is described. The boundary integral equation for surface displacement is combined with the hypersingular equation for surface traction. The difficult part in employing the traction equation, the derivation of analytical formulas for the hypersingular integral by means of a limit to the boundary, is easily handled by means of symbolic computation. In addition, the terms containing an integrable logarithmic singularity are treated by a straightforward numerical method, bypassing the use of Taylor series expansions. Example wave scattering calculations for cracks and thin ellipses are presented.     

AN INDIRECT BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD FOR PLATE BENDING ANALYSIS

An indirect Boundary Element Method is employed for the static analysis of homogeneous isotropic and linear elastic Kirchhoff plates of an arbitrary geometry. The objectives of this paper consists of a construction and a study of the resulting boundary integral equations as well as a development of stable powerful algorithms for their numerical approximation. These equations involve integrals with high-order kernel singularities. The treatment of singular and hypersingular integrals and a construction of solutions in the neighborhood of the irregular points on the boundary are discussed. Numerical examples illustrate the procedure and demonstrate its advantages. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Error estimation of quadrature rules for evaluating singular integrals in boundary element problems

The efficient numerical evaluation of integrals arising in the boundary element method is of considerable practical importance. The superiority of the use of sigmoidal and semi‐sigmoidal transformations together with Gauss–Legendre quadrature in this context has already been well‐demonstrated numerically by one of the authors. In this paper, the authors obtain asymptotic estimates of the truncation errors for these algorithms. These estimates allow an informed choice of both the transformation and the quadrature error in the evaluation of boundary element integrals with algebraic or algebraic/logarithmic singularities at an end‐point of the interval of integration. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the efficient computation of the stress components near a closed boundary in plane elasticity by using classical complex boundary integral equations

Complex boundary integral equations (Fredholm‐type regular or Cauchy‐type singular or even Hadamard–Mangler‐type hypersingular) have been used for the numerical solution of general plane isotropic elasticity problems. The related Muskhelishvili and, particularly, Lauricella–Sherman equations are famous in the literature, but several more extensions of the Lauricella–Sherman equations have also been proposed. In this paper it is just mentioned that the stress and displacement components can be very accurately computed near either external or internal simple closed boundaries (for anyone of the above equations: regular or singular or hypersingular, but with a prerequisite their actual numerical solution) through the appropriate use of the even more classical elementary Cauchy theorem in complex analysis. This approach has been already used for the accurate numerical computation of analytic functions and their derivatives by Ioakimidis, Papadakis and Perdios (BIT 1991; 31 : 276–285), without applications to elasticity problems, but here the much more complicated case of the elastic complex potentials is studied even when just an appropriate non‐analytic complex density function (such as an edge dislocation/loading distribution density) is numerically available on the boundary. The present results are also directly applicable to inclusion problems, anisotropic elasticity, antiplane elasticity and classical two‐dimensional fluid dynamics, but, unfortunately, not to crack problems in fracture mechanics. Brief numerical results (for the complex potentials), showing the dramatic increase of the computational accuracy, are also displayed and few generalizations proposed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical implementation of the symmetric Galerkin boundary element method in 2D elastodynamics

The symmetric Galerkin boundary element method (SGBEM) employs both the displacement integral equation and the traction integral equation which lead to a symmetric system of equations. A two‐dimensional SGBEM is implemented in this paper, with emphasis on the special treatments of singular integrals. The integrals in the time domain are carried out by an analytical method. In order to evaluate the strong singular double integrals and the hypersingular double integrals in the space domain which are associated with the fundamental solutions G ^pu and G ^pp, artificial body forces are introduced which can be used to indirectly derive the singular terms. Thus, those singular integrals which behave like 1/r and 1/r² are all avoided in the proposed SGEBM implementation. An artificial body force scheme is proposed to evaluate the body force term effectively. Two numerical examples are presented to assess the accuracy of the numerical implementation, and show similar accuracy when compared with the FEM and the analytical solutions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary element analysis of Kirchhoff plates with direct evaluation of hypersingular integrals

The typical Boundary Element Method (BEM) for fourth‐order problems, like bending of thin elastic plates, is based on two coupled boundary integral equations, one strongly singular and the other hypersingular. In this paper all singular integrals are evaluated directly, extending a general method formerly proposed for second‐order problems. Actually, the direct method for the evaluation of singular integrals is completely revised and presented in an alternative way. All aspects are dealt with in detail and full generality, including the evaluation of free‐term coefficients. Numerical tests and comparisons with other regularization techniques show that the direct evaluation of singular integrals is easy to implement and leads to very accurate results. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A direct approach for boundary integral equations with high‐order singularities

Boundary integral equations with extremely singular (i.e., more than hypersingular) kernels would be useful in several fields of applied mechanics, particularly when second‐ and third‐order derivatives of the primary variable are required. However, their definition and numerical treatment pose several problems. In this paper, it is shown how to obtain these boundary integral equations with still unnamed singularities and, moreover, how to efficiently and reliably compute all the singular integrals. This is done by extending in full generality the so‐called direct approach. Only for definiteness, the method is presented for the analysis of the deflection of thin elastic plates. Numerical results concerning integrals with singularities up to order r⁻⁴ are presented to validate the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

HYPERSINGULAR BEM FOR TRANSIENT ELASTODYNAMICS

The topic of hypersingular boundary integral equations is a rapidly developing one due to the advantages which this kind of formulation offers compared to the standard boundary integral one. In this paper the hypersingular formulation is developed for time-domain antiplane elastodynamic problems. Firstly, the gradient representation is found from the displacement one, removing the strong singularities (Dirac's delta functions) which arise due to the differentiation process. The gradient representation is carried to the boundary through a limiting process and the resulting equation is shown to be consistent with the static formulation. Next, the numerical treatment of the traction boundary integral equation and its application to crack problems are presented. For the boundary discretization, conforming quadratic elements are tested, which are introduced in this paper for the first time, and it is shown that the results are very good in spite of the lesser number of unknowns of this approach in comparison to the non-conforming element alternative. A procedure is devised to numerically perform the hypersingular integrals that is both accurate and versatile. Several crack problems are solved to show the possibilities of the method. To this end both straight and curved elements are employed as well as regular and distorted quarter point elements.     

Explicit expressions for 3D boundary integrals in potential theory

On employing isoparametric, piecewise linear shape functions over a flat triangular domain, exact expressions are derived for all surface potentials involved in the numerical solution of three‐dimensional singular and hyper‐singular boundary integral equations of potential theory. These formulae, which are valid for an arbitrary source point in space, are represented as analytic expressions over the edges of the integration triangle. They can be used to solve integral equations defined on polygonal boundaries via the collocation method or may be utilized as analytic expressions for the inner integrals in the Galerkin technique. In addition, the constant element approximation can be directly obtained with no extra effort. Sample problems solved by the collocation boundary element method for the Laplace equation are included to validate the proposed formulae. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Two trigonometric quadrature formulae for evaluating hypersingular integrals

Two trigonometric quadrature formulae, one of non‐interpolatory type and one of interpolatory type for computing the hypersingular integral are developed on the basis of trigonometric quadrature formulae for Cauchy principal value integrals. The formulae use the cosine change of variables and trigonometric polynomial interpolation at the practical abscissae. Fast three‐term recurrence relations for evaluating the quadrature weights are derived. Numerical tests are carried out using the current formula. As applications, two simple crack problems are considered. One is a semi‐infinite plane containing an internal crack perpendicular to its boundary and the other is a centre cracked panel subjected to both normal and shear tractions. It is found that the present method generally gives superior results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NON-SINGULAR SOMIGLIANA STRESS IDENTITIES IN ELASTICITY

The paper presents two fully equivalent and regular forms of the hypersingular Somigliana stress identity in elasticity that are appropriate for problems in which the displacement field (and resulting stresses) is C^1,α continuous. Each form is found as the result of a single decomposition process on the kernels of the Somigliana stress identity in three dimensions. The results show that the use of a simple stress state for regularization arises in a direct manner from the Somigliana stress identity, just as the use of a constant displacement state regularization arose naturally for the Somigliana displacement identity. The results also show that the same construction leads naturally to a finite part form of the same identity. While various indirect constructions of the equivalents to these findings are published, none of the earlier forms address the fundamental issue of the usual discontinuities of boundary data in the hypersingular Somigliana stress identity that arise at corners and edges. These new findings specifically focus on the corner problem and establish that the previous requirements for continuity on the densities in the hypersingular Somigliana stress identity are replaced by a sole requirement on displacement field continuity. The resulting regularized and finite part forms of the Somigliana stress identity leads to a regularized form of the stress boundary integral equation (stress-BIE). The regularized stress-BIE is shown to properly allow piecewise discontinuity of the boundary data subject only to C^1,α continuity of the underlying displacement field. The importance of the findings is in their application to boundary element modeling of the hypersingular problem. The piecewise discontinuity derivation for corners is found to provide a rigorous and non-singular basis for collocation of the discontinuous boundary data for both the regularized and finite part forms of the stress-BIE. The boundary stress solution for both forms is found to be an average of the computed stresses at collocation points at the vertices of boundary element meshes. Collocation at these points is shown to be without any unbounded terms in the formulation thereby eliminating the use of non-conforming elements for the hypersingular equations. The analytical findings in this paper confirm the correct use of both regularized and finite part forms of the stress-BIE that have been the basis of boundary element analysis previously published by the first author of the current paper.     

On the numerical solution of linear exterior problems via the uncoupling method

The application of the uncoupling of boundary integral and finite element methods to solve exterior boundary value problems in R ² yields a weak formulation that contains only one boundary term. This is the so-called uncoupling term, which is determined by the boundary integral operator of the single-layer potential acting on a circle centered at the origin. The purpose of this paper is to provide a suitable formula, which combines analytical and numerical methods, to approximately integrate the uncoupling term to any exacteness. Our method provides sharper error estimates than the one that uses Truncated Infinite Fourier Series (TIFE). As a model we consider the exterior Dirichlet problem for the Laplacian, and use linear finite elements for the corresponding Galerkin scheme. Some numerical experiments are also presented. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hypersingular quarter-point boundary elements for crack problems

The present paper deals with the study and effective implementation for Stress Intensity Factor computation of a mixed boundary element approach based on the standard displacement integral equation and the hypersingular traction integral equation. Expressions for the evaluation of the hypersingular integrals along general curved quadratic line elements are presented. The integration is carried out by transformation of the hypersingular integrals into regular integrals, which are evaluated by standard quadratures, and simple singular integrals, which are integrated analytically. The generality of the method allows for the modelling of curved cracks and the use of straight line quarter-point elements. The Stress Intensity Factors can be computed very accurately from the Crack Opening Displacement at collocation points extremely close to the crack tip. Several examples with different crack geometries are analyzed. The computed results show that the proposed approach for Stress Intensity Factors evaluation is simple, produces very accurate solutions and has little dependence on the size of the elements near the crack tip.     

Efficient 2D Analysis of Interfacial Thermoelastic Stresses in Multiply Bonded Anisotropic Composites with Thin Adhesives

In engineering practice, analysis of interfacial thermal stresses in composites is a crucial task for assuring structural integrity when sever environmental temperature changes under operations. In this article, the directly transformed boundary integrals presented previously for treating generally anisotropic thermoelasticity in two-dimension are fully regularized by a semi-analytical approach for modeling thin multi-layers of anisotropic/isotropic composites, subjected to general thermal loads with boundary conditions prescribed. In this process, an additional difficulty, not reported in the literature, arises due to rapid fluctuation of an integrand in the directly transformed boundary integral equation. In conventional analysis, thin adhesives are usually neglected due to modeling difficulties. A major concern arises regarding the modeling error caused by such negligence of the thin adhesives. For investigating the effect of the thin adhesives considered, the regularized integral equation is applied for analyzing interfacial stresses in multiply bonded composites when thin adhesives are considered. Since all integrals are completely regularized, very accurate integration values can be still obtained no matter how the source point is close to the integration element. Comparisons are made for some examples when the thin adhesives are considered or neglected. Truly, this regularization task has laid sound fundamentals for the boundary element method to efficiently analyze the interfacial thermal stresses in 2D thin multiply bonded anisotropic composites.     

A Hybrid T Matrix/Boundary Element Method for Elastic Wave Scattering from a Defect Near a Non-planar Surface

The in-plane P-SV scattering of elastic waves by a defect and a close non-planar surface is considered. A hybrid T matrix/boundary element approach is used, where a boundary integral equation is used for the non-planar surface and the Green’s tensor in this integral equation is chosen as the one for the defect and thus incorporates the transition (T) matrix of the defect. The integral equation is discretized by the boundary element method in a standard way. Also models of ultrasonic probes in transmission and reception are included. In the numerical examples the defect is for simplicity chosen as a circular cavity. This cavity is located close to a non-planar surface, which is planar except for a smooth transition between two planar parts. It is illustrated that the scattering by the cavity and the non-planar surface becomes quite complicated, and that shielding and masking may appear.