This work presents a subdomain decomposition method as an alternative to im
prove the performance of the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBE
M) in the BEM numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. In the tra
ditional DRBEM, the domain integrals that arise from the non-linear terms i
n the Navier-Stokes equations are approximated by a series of particular so
lutions and a set of collocation nodes distributed over the integration dom
ain. In the present approach a subdomain technique is used in which the int
egration domain is divided into small quadrilateral elements whose four edg
es are linear discontinous boundary elements. The domain integrals in each
subdomain are transformed into boundary integrals by dual reciprocity with
augmented thin-plate splines i.e. r(2) log r, plus three additional linear
terms from a Pascal triangle expansion. It will be shown that this multi-do
main technique is efficient and promising for the solution of high Reynolds
number problems. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.