Direct evaluation of singular boundary integrals in two‐dimensional biharmonic analysis

Abstract

Development of techniques to provide rapid and accurate evaluation of the integrations required in boundary element method (BEM) formulations are receiving more attention in the literature. In this work, a series of direct expressions for surface integrals, required for a boundary element solution of the non‐homogeneous biharmonic over a general two‐dimensional curvilinear surface, are presented. The concept of an isoparametric representation, usually applied to the variation of the field variables and the geometry, is extended to the parametric mapping of the curvilinear geometry. The result renders the typically complicated Jacobian function into a series of polynomial expressions based on the shape function set and several discrete Jacobian values. An application of the isoparametric approximation of the Jacobian for a quadratic element representation is developed. Implementation of this approximation significantly improves the accuracy of the boundary integral solution by eliminating error associated with numerical quadrature. Overall computational efficiency is improved by reducing the time necessary to calculate individual surface integrals and evaluate field variables at internal points. A numerical solution of the boundary integral equations of phenomena governed by the biharmonic equation is presented and compared with an exact analysis. Copyright © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Publication Title

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering

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