An energy approach to the boundary element method. II: Elastic-plastic solids (Q1094201)

On the basis of the energy formulation presented in a twin paper [see the article reviewed above (Zbl 0629.73069)], the use of the BEM to solve the most typical problems of elastoplasticity is studied. To this aim a two- fold discretization is operated by boundary elements, as well by cell elements, the latter having the only purpose of suitably modelling the plastic behaviour of the continuum. Global plastic yielding laws for the individual cell elements are derived by means of the maximum plastic work theorem. In such a way, the BE/cell discretized model is shown to be governed by discrete-form equations fully equivalent to those of FE models. In particular, provided that the cell plastic yielding laws are piecewise linear, all the mathematical programming methods used to solve problems within the FEM can be entirely utilized also within the BEM. However, the numerical implementation of this approach and its competitiveness with respect to the FEM are questions open to further study.