APPLICATION OF BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD TO STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to apply boundary element method to various engineering problems. The method consists of transformation of the partial differential equation describing the behaviour of the unknown inside and on the boundary of the domain in to an integral equation relating only boundary values. Initially a cantilever beam problem is solved by hand calculations. In one case solution of second degree differential equation is used and results are compared with those using fundamental solution.. This method is applied to solve potential problems governed by Laplace equation. The method is applied to following problems. 1. Ground water flow round a tunr:el. 2. To find phreatio line in an earth dam using iterative procedure. Two linearly elastic plane strain problems are also -olved by using boundary element method. Fundamental solution for two dimensional isotropic plane strain case is used. The problems solved are 1. To find displacements and stresses around a cavity under internal .pressure. 2. To find displacements and stresses;'' 44d the surface of circular tulanel.