Boundary element method for electroelastic interaction in piezoceramics

A boundary element formulation and its numerical realization for the analysis of electroelastic interaction in piezoelectric materials are presented and corroborated numerically. Based on the linear theory of piezoelasticity, the boundary integral equation is developed employing the mechanical displacement and the electric potential as the primary variables. A two-dimensional fundamental solution for transversely isotopic piezoelectric materials is obtained in closed form and numerically implemented using the spline boundary element method. As a numerical example, stress analysis is performed for an infinite piezoceramic medium (PZT-4) containing a cylindrical defect under several mechanical and electric loading conditions. Numerical results are shown to be in good agreement with an available solution.     

A comparison of domain integral evaluation techniques for boundary element methods

In many cases, boundary integral equations contain a domain integral. This can be evaluated by discretization of the domain into domain elements. Historically, this was seen as going against the spirit of boundary element methods, and several methods were developed to avoid this discretization, notably dual and multiple reciprocity methods and particular solution methods. These involved the representation of the interior function with a set of basis functions, generally of the radial type. In this study, meshless methods (dual reciprocity and particular solution) are compared to the direct domain integration methods. The domain integrals are evaluated using traditional methods and also with multipole acceleration. It is found that the direct integration always results in better accuracy, as well as smaller computation times. In addition, the multipole method further improves on the computation times, in particular where multiple evaluations of the integral are required, as when iterative solvers are used. The additional error produced by the multipole acceleration is negligible. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three‐dimensional BEM for scattering of elastic waves in general anisotropic media

Based on the full‐space Green's functions, a three‐dimensional time‐harmonic boundary element method is presented for the scattering of elastic waves in a triclinic full space. The boundary integral equations for incident, scattered and total wave fields are given. An efficient numerical method is proposed to calculate the free terms for any geometry. The discretization of the boundary integral equation is achieved by using a linear triangular element. Applications are discussed for scattering of elastic waves by a spherical cavity in a 3D triclinic medium. The method has been tested by comparing the numerical results with the existing analytical solutions for an isotropic problem. The results show that, in addition to the frequency of the incident waves, the scattered waves strongly depend on the anisotropy of the media. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic response of shear-deformable axisymmetric orthotropic circular plate structures solved by the DQEM and EDQ based time integration schemes

The dynamic response of shear-deformable axisymmetric orthotropic circular plate structures is solved by using the DQEM to the spacial discretization and EDQ to the temporal discretization. In the DQEM discretization, DQ is used to define the discrete element model. Discrete dynamic equilibrium equations defined at interior nodes in all elements, transition conditions defined on the inter-element boundary of two adjacent elements and boundary conditions at the structural boundary form a dynamic equation system at a specified time stage. The dynamic equilibrium equation system is solved by the direct time integration schemes of time-element by time-element method and stages by stages method which are developed by using EDQ and DQ. Numerical results obtained by the developed numerical algorithms are presented. They demonstrate the developed numerical solution procedure.     

A comparison of different methods to solve inverse biharmonic boundary value problems

The Boundary Element Method (BEM) is applied to solve numerically some inverse boundary value problems associated to the biharmonic equation which involve over‐ and under‐specified boundary portions of the solution domain. The resulting ill‐conditioned system of linear equations is solved using the regularization and the minimal energy methods, followed by a further application of the Singular Value Decomposition Method (SVD). The regularization method incorporates a smoothing effect into the least squares functional, whilst the minimal energy method is based on minimizing the energy functional for the Laplace equation subject to the linear constraints generated by the BEM discretization of the biharmonic equation. The numerical results are compared with known analytical solutions and the stability of the numerical solution is investigated by introducing noise into the input data. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The boundary element solution of the Laplace and biharmonic equations subjected to noisy boundary data

This study investigates the numerical solution of the Laplace and biharmonic equations subjected to noisy boundary data. Since both equations are linear, they are numerically discretized using the Boundary Element Method (BEM), which does not use any solution domain discretization, to reduce the problem to solving a system of linear algebraic equations for the unspecified boundary values. It is shown that when noisy, lower-order derivatives are prescribed on the boundary, then a direct approach, e.g. Gaussian elimination, for solving the resulting discretized system of linear equations produces an unstable, i.e. unbounded and highly oscillatory, numerical solution for the unspecified higher-order boundary derivatives data. In order to overcome this difficulty, and produce a stable solution of the resulting system of linear equations, the singular value decomposition approach (SVD), truncated at an optimal level given by the L-curve method, is employed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary Particle Method with High-Order Trefftz Functions

This paper presents high-order Trefftz functions for some commonly used differential operators. These Trefftz functions are then used to construct boundary particle method for solving inhomogeneous problems with the boundary discretization only, i.e., no inner nodes and mesh are required in forming the final linear equation system. It should be mentioned that the presented Trefftz functions are nonsingular and avoids the singularity occurred in the fundamental solution and, in particular, have no problem-dependent parameter. Numerical experiments demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the present scheme in the solution of inhomogeneous problems.     

The scaled boundary finite element method—alias consistent infinitesimal finite element cell method—for diffusion

The scaled boundary finite element method, alias the consistent infinitesimal finite element cell method, is developed starting from the diffusion equation. Only the boundary of the medium is discretized with surface finite elements yielding a reduction of the spatial dimension by one. No fundamental solution is necessary, and thus no singular integrals need to be evaluated. Essential and natural boundary conditions on surfaces and conditions on interfaces between different materials are enforced exactly without any discretization. The solution of the function in the radial direction is analytical. This method is thus exact in the radial direction and converges to the exact solution in the finite element sense in the circumferential directions. The semi‐analytical solution inside the domain leads to an efficient procedure to calculate singularities accurately without discretization in the vicinity of the singular point. For a bounded medium symmetric steady‐state stiffness and mass matrices with respect to the degrees of freedom on the boundary result without any additional assumption. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The BEM for plates of variable thickness on nonlinear biparametric elastic foundation. An analog equation solution

The BEM is developed for the analysis of plates with variable thickness resting on a nonlinear biparametric elastic foundation. The presented solution is achieved using the Analog Equation Method (AEM). According to the AEM the fourth-order partial differential equation with variable coefficients describing the response of the plate is converted to an equivalent linear problem for a plate with constant stiffness not resting on foundation and subjected only to an `appropriate' fictitious load under the same boundary conditions. The fictitious load is established using a technique based on the BEM and the solution of the actual problem is obtained from the known integral representation of the solution of the substitute problem, which is derived using the static fundamental solution of the biharmonic equation. The method is boundary-only in the sense that the discretization and the integration are performed only on the boundary. To illustrate the method and its efficiency, plates of various shapes are analyzed with linear and quadratic plate thickness variation laws resting on a nonlinear biparametric elastic foundation.     

An h‐hierarchical adaptive procedure for the scaled boundary finite‐element method

The scaled boundary finite‐element method (a novel semi‐analytical method for solving linear partial differential equations) involves the solution of a quadratic eigenproblem, the computational expense of which rises rapidly as the number of degrees of freedom increases. Consequently, it is desirable to use the minimum number of degrees of freedom necessary to achieve the accuracy desired. Stress recovery and error estimation techniques for the method have recently been developed. This paper describes an h‐hierarchical adaptive procedure for the scaled boundary finite‐element method. To allow full advantage to be taken of the ability of the scaled boundary finite‐element method to model stress singularities at the scaling centre, and to avoid discretization of certain adjacent segments of the boundary, a sub‐structuring technique is used. The effectiveness of the procedure is demonstrated through a set of examples. The procedure is compared with a similar h‐hierarchical finite element procedure. Since the error estimators in both cases evaluate the energy norm of the stress error, the computational cost of solutions of similar overall accuracy can be compared directly. The examples include the first reported direct comparison of the computational efficiency of the scaled boundary finite‐element method and the finite element method. The scaled boundary finite‐element method is found to reduce the computational effort considerably. Copyright © 2002 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.     

The boundary element method applied to a moving free boundary problem

In this paper a boundary problem is considered for which the boundary is to be determined as part of the solution. A time‐dependent problem involving linear diffusion in two spatial dimensions which results in a moving free boundary is posed. The fundamental solution is introduced and Green’s Theorem is used to yield a non‐linear system of integral equations for the unknown solution and the location of the boundary. The boundary element method is used to obtain a numerical solution to this system of integral equations which in turn is used to obtain the solution of the original problem. Graphical results for a two‐dimensional problem are presented. Published in 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A three-dimensional boundary element formulation for the elastoplastic analysis of cracked bodies

In this paper a general boundary element formulation for the three-dimensional elastoplastic analysis of cracked bodies is presented. The non-linear formulation is based on the Dual Boundary Element Method. The continuity requirements of the field variables are fulfilled by a discretization strategy that incorporates continuous, semi-discontinuous and discontinuous boundary elements as well as continuous and semi-discontinuous domain cells. Suitable integration procedures are used for the accurate integration of the Cauchy surface and volume integrals. The explicit version of the initial strain formulation is used to satisfy the non-linearity. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed method. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamics of charged and conducting drops via the hybrid finite-boundary element method

A numerical study on the dynamic behaviour of a charged and conducting drop, with net electrical charge , is presented here, that is valid for arbitrary initial disturbances. It employs the integral form of Laplace's equation for the calculation of the velocity and electrostatic potentials, which only requires discretization and solution on the surface of the drop. Thus a hybrid method results with the integral equations solved via the boundary element technique, while the Galerkin finite element formulation is used for the kinematic and dynamic condition at the interface as well as for the net charge conservation equation. Recently, the authors followed this approach in their study on the free nonlinear oscillations of inviscid drops, and they were able to optimize time and space discretization as well as the treatment of the integral equation with excellent results.     

Some benchmark problems and basic ideas on the accuracy of boundary element analysis

Taken the linear elasticity problems as examples, some benchmark problems are presented to investigate the influence of calculation error and discretization error on the accuracy of boundary element analysis. For the conventional boundary element analysis based on singular kernel function of fundamental solution and using Gaussian elimination method, the main calculation error comes from the integration of kernel and shape function product on each element. Based on some benchmark problems of “simple problem” without discretization error, it can be observed that sometimes a large number of integration points in Gaussian quadrature should be adopted. To guarantee the integration accuracy reliably, an improved adaptive Gaussian quadrature approach is presented and verified. The main error of boundary element analysis is the discretization error, provided the calculation error has been reduced effectively. Based on some benchmark problems, it can be observed that for the bending problems both the constant and linear element are not efficient, the quadratic element with a reasonable refined mesh is required to guarantee the accuracy of boundary element analysis. An error indicator to guide the mesh refinement in the convergence test towards the converged accurate results based on the distribution of boundary effective stress is presented and verified.     

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.     

Algebraic multilevel iteration method for lowest order Raviart–Thomas space and applications

An optimal order algebraic multilevel iterative method for solving system of linear algebraic equations arising from the finite element discretization of certain boundary value problems, that have their weak formulation in the space H(div), is presented. The algorithm is developed for the discrete problem obtained by using the lowest‐order Raviart–Thomas space. The method is theoretically analyzed and supporting numerical examples are presented. Furthermore, as a particular application, the algorithm is used for the solution of the discrete minimization problem which arises in the functional‐type a posteriori error estimates for the discontinuous Galerkin approximation of elliptic problems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

3D crack analysis in functionally graded materials

Elastostatic crack analysis in three-dimensional, continuously non-homogeneous, isotropic and linear elastic functionally graded materials and structures is presented in this paper. A boundary-domain-integral equation formulation is applied for this purpose, which uses the elastostatic fundamental solutions for homogeneous, isotropic and linear elastic materials and involves a domain-integral due to the material’s non-homogeneity. To avoid displacement gradients in the domain-integral, normalized displacements are introduced. The domain-integral is transformed into boundary-integrals over the global boundary of the cracked solids by using the radial integration method. A meshless scheme is developed, which requires only the conventional boundary discretization and additional interior nodes instead of interior cells or meshes. Numerical examples for three-dimensional crack problems in continuously non-homogeneous, isotropic and linear elastic FGMs are presented and discussed, to show the effects of the material gradation on the crack-opening-displacements and the stress intensity factors.     

The boundary element‐free method for elastoplastic implicit analysis

A meshless procedure, based on boundary integral equations, is proposed to analyze elastoplastic problems. To cope with non‐linear problems, the usual boundary element method introduces domain discretization cells, often considered a ‘drawback’ of the method. Here, to get rid of the standard element and cell, i.e. boundary and domain discretization, the orthogonal moving least squares (also known as improved moving least squares) method is used. The algorithm adopted to solve these particular inelastic non‐linear problems is a well‐established, criterion‐independent implicit procedure, previously developed by the authors. Comparative results are presented at the end to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solution of non‐linear boundary integral equations in complex geometries with auxiliary integral subtraction

The boundary integral equation that results from the application of the reciprocity theorem to non‐linear or non‐homogeneous differential equations generally contains a domain integral. While methods exist for the meshless evaluation of these integrals, mesh‐based domain integration is generally more accurate and can be performed more quickly with the application of fast multipole methods. However, polygonalization of complex multiply‐connected geometries can become a costly task, especially in three‐dimensional analyses. In this paper, a method that allows a mesh‐based integration in complex domains, while retaining a simple mesh structure, is described. Although the technique is intended for the numerical solution of more complex differential equations, such as the Navier–Stokes equations, for simplicity the method is applied to the solution of a Poisson equation, in domains of varying complexity. It is shown that the error introduced by the auxiliary domain subtraction method is comparable to the discretization error, while the complexity of the mesh is significantly reduced. The behaviour of the error in the boundary solution observed with the application of the new method is analogous to the behaviour observed with conventional cell‐based domain integration. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.