A Study on Non-Conforming Boundary Elements in Elastomechanics

by George D. Manolis, State Univ of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA,
Prasanta K. Banerjee, State Univ of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Recent Applications in Computational Mechanics

Abstract:

This work is a critical study on the performance of non-conforming boundary elements in three-dimensional elastomechanics. The pervasive way of implementing the boundary element method nowadays appears to be through the use of conforming elements. These elements have the nodes used for collocation of the field variables placed along the perimeter, usually in coincidence with the nodes used for describing the geometry. In contrast, non-conforming elements have the collocation nodes arranged inside the element so that interelement continuity of the field variables is not, in general, assured. The reasons for continuing use of non-conforming elements in the boundary element method are two-fold: First, simplification in the assembly and solution of the system equations and second, easy computation of the 'free' and Cauchy principal value terms appearing in the integral equations. Non-conforming elements are not able to compete with conforming elements in terms of accuracy of the solution and economy in the final size of the system equations.

Subject Headings: Boundary element method | Three-dimensional analysis | Finite element method | Elastic analysis | Mechanical properties | Mathematics | Integrals

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