BOUNDARY ELEMENTS WITH EQUILIBRIUM SATISFACTION - A CONSISTENT FORMULATION FOR POTENTIAL AND ELASTOSTATIC PROBLEMS

A direct boundary element formulation which produces equilibrium satisfaction in the numerical solutions is presented. It consistently originates from the standard boundary integral equation with a simple modification in the fundamental solution and can be applied to general potential and elasticity problems. Since boundary equilibrium is guaranteed for any problem discretization, the procedure is also found useful to generate improved stiffness matrices, which permits combination with finite elements. Some elastostatic examples are included to demonstrate the applicability of the formulation.