Solving general field equations in infinite domains with dual reciprocity boundary element method

The dual reciprocity boundary element method has been successfully employed to solve general field equations posed in a closed domain, i.e. interior problems. Up to now, however, little effort has been made to extend it to exterior problems (i.e. general field equations posed in an infinite region), which are commonly encountered in engineering practice. In this paper, the interpolation functions associated with exterior problems, which were proposed by Loeffler and Mansur (in Boundary Elements X, Vol. 2, Springer, 1988), are first examined. We have found that the choice of the arbitrary constant, the inclusion of which is necessary in those interpolation functions, has clear effects on the accuracy of the numerical results. A mapping transformation, through which any exterior problem can be solved by solving an equivalent interior problem, is then proposed. Although there are certain regularity conditions attached to such a mapping, they can be easily satisfied if the unknown function satisfies certain regularity conditions at infinity in the original exterior problem. A successful application of this mapping transformation to a transient heat transfer problem demonstrates the good performance of this approach.