Boundary element analysis of 2-D elastostatic problems

Abstract

Practical engineering problems are challenging to solve analytically due to their complex domains and intricate boundary conditions. Thus, to the desired level of accuracy, such engineering problems are frequently solved numerically. There are other approximation methods for making numerical solutions, however in my thesis work, I used the boundary element method (BEM), where the problem's dimensionality is reduced by one. Two-dimensional elements can be used to model three-dimensional objects, and line elements can be used to model two-dimensional domains. In comparison to domain-specific approaches like finite element or finite difference methods, BEM takes less processing time and storage space. Hence, boundary element method has been preferred here over other domain methods. By using the boundary element method, an attempt has been made to solve two-dimensional plane stress and plain strain elasticity problems using constant elements.