EFFICIENT AUTOMATIC QUADRATURE IN 3-D GALERKIN BEM

We present cubature methods approximating the surface integrals arisin g by Galerkin discretization of boundary integral equations on surface s in R-3. This numerical integrator does not depend on the explicit fo rm of the kernel function, the trial and test space, or the surface pa rametrization. Thus, it is possible to generate the system matrix for a broad class of integral equations just by replacing the sub routine for evaluating the kernel function. We will present formulae to determ ine the minimal order of the cubature methods for a required accuracy. Emphasis is laid on numerical experiments confirming the theoretical results. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.