A 3-DIMENSIONAL B-SPLINE BOUNDARY-ELEMENT

The paper deals with the boundary element discretization of three-dime nsional structural problems. A model, based on the management of the b oundary by macro-elements, the use of a B-spline quadratic description of the boundary variables and a systematic use of analytical integrat ion, is presented. By referring to rectangular piece-wise solids, the results of the analytical integration are given in a general form, uti lizable for any order polynomial shape functions. The discretization p rocess has been designed with the aim of obtaining an accurate evaluat ion of the stress field. Two numerical tests, which can be compared wi th analytical and refined finite element solutions, have been selected to check the performance of the model. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.