Uncoupled dual formulations of the variational boundary element method in problems of the theory of elasticity (Q1315525)

Uncoupled dual formulations (UDFs) are proposed for the boundary functionals of the linear theory of elasticity, in the sense that the displacements and stresses are varied independently, and the equations of state on the boundary are treated as constraints involving Lagrange multipliers. The idea of this device is to use Lagrange multipliers to get rid of restrictions in the variational problem, represented by the equation of state. A finite element approximation of the solutions of these problems yields mixed formulations of the finite element method. Thus, the boundary element approximations proposed below for the UDF maybe regarded as a special mixed finite element method.