The coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods for the exterior steady Oseen problem

In this article, we present a new numerical method for solving the steady O seen equations in an unbounded plane domain. The technique consists in coup ling the boundary integral and the finite element methods. An artificial sm ooth boundary is introduced separating an interior inhomogeneous region fro m an exterior homogeneous one. The solution in exterior region is represent ed by an integral equation over the artificial boundary. This integral equa tion is incorporated into a velocity-pressure formulation for the interior region, and a finite element method is used to approximate the resulting va riational problem; Finally, the optimal error estimates of the numerical so lution are derived. Computer results will be discussed in a forthcoming paper. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.