The boundary element method (Q1341842)

In dealing with the development of the mathematics of the boundary element method the aim has been at every stage, only to present new material when sufficient experience and practice of simpler material has been gained. Since the usual background of many readers will be of differential equations, the connection of differential equations with integral equations is explained in chapter 1, together with analytical and numerical methods of solution. This information on integral equations provides a base for the work of subsequent chapters. The mathematical formulation of boundary integral equations for potential problems -- derived from the more familiar Laplace partial differential equation which governs many important physical problems -- is set out in chapter 2. It should be noted here that this initial formulation of the boundary integral equations reduces the dimensionality of the problem. In the key chapter 3, the essentials of the boundary element method are presented. This first presentation of the boundary element method is in its simplest and most approachable form -- two-dimensional, with the shape of the boundary approximated by straight lines and the functions approximated by constants over each of the straight lines. The following chapters develop the method by improving the levels of approximation and by dealing with the resulting problems of, for example, the accurate integration of singular kernels. Thus chapter 4 brings the function approximation to the same linear level as the boundary approximation. In chapter 5 both approximations are quadratic. By the time chapters 6 and 7 are reached, sufficient experience will have been gained of the boundary element method to deal with three-dimensional problems. Chapter 6 again takes partial differential equations and converts them to boundary integral equations, applies approximations to the boundary and to the functions and produces numerical solutions for three-dimensional problems. The more advanced problems of performing accurate integration arising from three-dimensional problems are dealt with in chapter 7. In all previous chapters, in order to gain experience, the application of the boundary element method has been to relatively simple potential problems. Chapter 8 presents the application of the boundary element method to the mainstream engineering problem of elastostatics. The book serves as a standard introductory reference text of the mathematics of the boundary element method and is ideal for final year undergraduate study as well as for postgraduates, scientists and engineers new to the subject. Worked examples and exercises are provided throughout the text.