The Boundary Contour Method for Three-Dimensional Linear Elasticity

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Abstract
This paper presents a novel variant of the boundary element method, here called the boundary contour method, applied to three-dimensional problems of linear elasticity. In this work, the surface integrals on boundary elements of the usual boundary element method are transformed, through an application of Stokes’ theorem, into line integrals on the bounding contours of these elements. Thus, in this formulation, only line integrals have to be numerically evaluated for three-dimensional elasticity problems—even for curved surface elements of arbitrary shape. Numerical results are presented for some three-dimensional problems, and these are compared against analytical solutions.