Non-linear physical systems of infinite extent are conveniently modell
ed using FE-BE coupling methods. By the combination of both methods, s
uitable use of the advantages of each one may be obtained. Several pos
sibilities of FEM-BEM coupling and their performance in some practical
cases are discussed in this paper. Parallelizable coupling algorithms
based on domain decomposition are developed and compared with the mos
t traditional coupling methods. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.