A general algorithm for evaluating nearly strong-singular (and beyond) integrals in three-dimensional boundary element analysis

One of the typical and most significant issues of almost all boundary element analyses is the accurate evaluation of nearly singular boundary element integrals. In this study, we review some numerical techniques used currently to calculate nearly singular integrals and propose an improved algorithm to calculate integrals with nearly strong (and beyond) singularities. This new method has full generally and can be easily included in any existing computer code. The method is tested in general three-dimensional boundary element analysis. Comparison of this method with some of the existing methods is also presented. It is shown that several orders of magnitude improvement in relative errors can be obtained using the proposed method when compared to a straightforward implementation of Gaussian quadrature.