Boundary element solution for half-space elasticity or Stokes problem with no-slip boundary (Q1820015)

We report an implementation of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for half-space elasticity or Stokes problems with a plane interface (the boundary of the half space). With a proper choice of the singularity solution this plane interface, on which the displacement or velocity vector is zero, does not need to be discretized. For a large class of problems involving translating or rotating bodies a simplification of the boundary element formulation is possible, with a resulting improvement in the accuracy of the numerical results. The three-dimensional boundary element program was tested with the moving sphere problem and was found to be satisfactory in all cases.