Transformation of domain integrals in BEM for thick foundation plates

In this paper, the domain integrals due to uniform load or self-weight that appear in the boundary element method (BEM) formulation for thick plates r esting on elastic foundations an transformed to boundary integrals. The Rei ssner plate bending model is used to model the plate behavior, and the two- parameter Pasternak model is used to model the behavior of the foundation. The necessary particular solutions an derived, and the explict forms for th e new boundary kernels are given. Two different collocation procedures are considered-external and boundary collocations. In the case of the boundary collocation and internal collocation (for computing internal functions) pro cedures, an additional free term is obtained, due to the discontinuity of t he transformed kernels. The new boundary integrals are hypersingular integr als. However, it will be shown that these hypersingular terms vanish when i ntegrated around a closed contour. Three numerical examples are presented w ith several parametric studies to demonstrate the accuracy of the present f ormulation.