The Boundary Element Method For Engineers And Scientists

Over the past decades, the Boundary Element Method has emerged as a ver satile and powerful tool for the solution of engineering problems, presenting in many cases an alternative to the more widely used Finite Element Method. As with any numerical method, the engineer or scientist who applies it to a practical problem needs to be acquainted with, and understand, its basic principles to be able to apply it correctly and be aware of its limitations. It is with this intention that we have endeavoured to write this book: to give the student or practitioner an easy-to-understand introductory course to the method so as to enable him or her to apply it judiciously. As the title suggests, this book not only serves as an introductory course, but also cov ers some advanced topics that we consider important for the researcher who needs to be up-to-date with new developments. This book is the result of our teaching experiences with the Boundary Element Method, along with research and consulting activities carried out in the field. Its roots lie in a graduate course on the Boundary Element Method given by the authors at the university of Stuttgart. The experiences gained from teaching and the remarks and questions of the students have contributed to shaping the 'Introductory course' (Chapters 1-8) to the needs of the stu dents without assuming a background in numerical methods in general or the Boundary Element Method in particular.

The Boundary Element Method for Engineers and Scientists: Theory and Applications is a detailed introduction to the principles and use of boundary element method (BEM), enabling this versatile and powerful computational tool to be employed for engineering analysis and design. In this book, Dr. Katsikadelis presents the underlying principles and explains how the BEM equations are formed and numerically solved using only the mathematics and mechanics to which readers will have been exposed during undergraduate studies. All concepts are illustrated with worked examples and problems, helping to put theory into practice and to familiarize the reader with BEM programming through the use of code and programs listed in the book and also available in electronic form on the book’s companion website. Offers an accessible guide to BEM principles and numerical implementation, with worked examples and detailed discussion of practical applications This second edition features three new chapters, including coverage of the dual reciprocity method (DRM) and analog equation method (AEM), with their application to complicated problems, including time dependent and non-linear problems, as well as problems described by fractional differential equations Companion website includes source code of all computer programs developed in the book for the solution of a broad range of real-life engineering problems

This thorough yet understandable introduction to the boundary element method presents an attractive alternative to the finite element method. It not only explains the theory but also presents the implementation of the theory into computer code, the code in FORTRAN 95 can be freely downloaded. The book also addresses the issue of efficiently using parallel processing hardware in order to considerably speed up the computations for large systems. The applications range from problems of heat and fluid flow to static and dynamic elasto-plastic problems in continuum mechanics.

VI SOCRATES: I think that we ought to stress that we will write only about things that we have first hand experience in, in a coherent way that will be useful to engineers and other scientists and stressing the formulation without being too mathematical. We should write with integrity and honesty, giving reference to other authors where reference is due, but avoiding mentioning everybody just to be certain that our book is widely advertised. Above all, the book should be clear and useful. PLATO: I think we should include a good discussion of fundamental ideas, of how integral equations are formed, pointing out that they are like two dimensional shadows of three dimensional objects, ... SOCRATES: Stop there! Remember you are not 'the' Plato! PLATO: Sorry, I was carried away. ARISTOTLE: I think that the book should have many applications so that the reader can learn by looking at them how to use the method. SOCRATES: I agree. But we should be careful. It is easy to include many illustra tions and examples in a book in order to disguise its meagre contents. All examples should be relevant. ARISTOTLE: And we should also include a full computer program to give the reader if so he wishes, a working experience of the technique.

The author's ambition for this publication was to make BEM accessible to the student as well as to the professional engineer. For this reason, his main task was to organize and present the material in such a way so that the book becomes "user-friendly" and easy to comprehend, taking into account only the mathematics and mechanics to which students have been exposed during their undergraduate studies. This effort led to an innovative, in many aspects, way of presenting BEM, including the derivation of fundamental solutions, the integral representation of the solutions and the boundary integral equations for various governing differential equations in a simple way minimizing a recourse to mathematics with which the student is not familiar. The indicial and tensorial notations, though they facilitate the author's work and allow to borrow ready to use expressions from the literature, have been avoided in the present book. Nevertheless, all the necessary preliminary mathematical concepts have been included in order to make the book complete and self-sufficient. Throughout the book, every concept is followed by example problems, which have been worked out in detail and with all the necessary clarifications. Furthermore, each chapter of the book is enriched with problems-to-solve. These problems serve a threefold purpose. Some of them are simple and aim at applying and better understanding the presented theory, some others are more difficult and aim at extending the theory to special cases requiring a deeper understanding of the concepts, and others are small projects which serve the purpose of familiarizing the student with BEM programming and the programs contained in the CD-ROM. The latter class of problems is very important as it helps students to comprehend the usefulness and effectiveness of the method by solving real-life engineering problems. Through these problems students realize that the BEM is a powerful computational tool and not an alternative theoretical approach for dealing with physical problems. My experience in teaching BEM shows that this is the students' most favorite type of problems. They are delighted to solve them, since they integrate their knowledge and make them feel confident in mastering BEM. The CD-ROM which accompanies the book contains the source codes of all the computer programs developed in the book, so that the student or the engineer can use them for the solution of a broad class of problems. Among them are general potential problems, problems of torsion, thermal conductivity, deflection of membranes and plates, flow of incompressible fluids, flow through porous media, in isotropic or anisotropic, homogeneous or composite bodies, as well as plane elastostatic problems in simply or multiply connected domains. As one can readily find out from the variety of the applications, the book is useful for engineers of all disciplines. The author is hopeful that the present book will introduce the reader to BEM in an easy, smooth and pleasant way and also contribute to its dissemination as a modern robust computational tool for solving engineering problems.

Disk includes versions of BETIS and SERBA programs and input and output files corresponding to the examples that appear in the book.