Coupling of element-free Galerkin and hybrid boundary element methods using modified variational formulation (Q1582021)

The coupling of element-free Galerkin method and boundary element method is described for the equations of linear elasticity. Compared to earlier coupling approaches, the modified variational formulation presented here leads to symmetric matrices, and the order of continuity of the shape functions near the interface is higher. Furthermore, there is no need for interface elements. The validity and efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated through a number of example problems.