Validity conditions of the direct boundary integral equation for exterior problems of plane elasticity

Writing the boundary integral equation for an exterior problem of plane elasticity has been subordinate, so far, to hypotheses on the asymptotical behaviour of solutions at infinity. The sufficient conditions met in the literature are too restrictive and do not notably cover the case when the loading has a non-zero resultant force. This difficulty can be removed by considering the problem in displacements relatively to one point located at a finite distance from the loading. Finally, this auxiliary problem allows the widening of the conditions of validity of the usual formulation of the direct integral method.