A DUAL RECIPROCITY METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ADHESIVELY PATCHED SHEETS

A dual reciprocity method (DRM) for the analysis of problems involving thin patches adhesively bonded to a thin sheet is presented. Displace ment compatibility between the sheet and patches is enforced. The atta chment forces are modelled as body forces acting in subdomains within the sheet and patch domains. The DRM is used to avoid the discretizati on of the attachment subdomains into internal cells. The formulation p resented does not require the storage and inversion of the DRM coeffic ients matrix. Results are presented for the attachment forces which de monstrate the accuracy of the solution proposed. (C) 1997 by John Wile y & Sons, Ltd.