A HERMITE INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM FOR HYPERSINGULAR BOUNDARY INTEGRALS

This paper presents a conforming C1 boundary integral algorithm based on Hermite interpolation. This work is motivated by the requirement that the surface function multiplying a hypersingular kernel be differentiable at the collocation nodes. The unknown surface derivatives utilized by the Hermite approximation are determined, consistent with other boundary values, by writing a tangential hypersingular equation. Hypersingular equations are primarily invoked for solving crack problems, and the focus herein is on developing a suitable approximation for this geometry. Test calculations for the Laplace equation in two dimensions indicate that the algorithm is a promising technique for three-dimensional problems.