A boundary element solution to the soap bubble problem (Q5937894)

The boundary element method (BEM) is applied to the soap bubble problem -- that is, to the problem of determining the surface that a soap bubble constrained by bounding contours assumes under the action of molecular forces. This is also the shape of a uniformly stretched membrane bounded by one or more nonintersecting curves and the resulting governing equation is nonlinear. The problem is solved making use of the analogue equation method. According to this method the nonlinear membrane is substituted by a linear one subjected to a fictitious transverse load. The fictitious load is established using the BEM. Numerical examples are presented which illustrate the method and demonstrate its accuracy.