DOMAIN DECOMPOSITION WITH BEM AND FEM

The Finite Element Method and the Boundary Element Method are two diff erent structure analysis methods with a totally different numerical ch aracter. Therefore, it makes no sense to couple these two methods poin twise at the interface. In contrast to a lot of coupling strategies in the past, in this paper a method is constructed where we have couplin g of the two different methods in a weak form. As a result we can anal yse the given structure with two different grids independent of each o ther. On this account, we see that the big advantage of the proposed m ethod is in its ablity to couple BEM and FEM. The construction of a ro bust and reliable numerical algorithm depends on the adaptive control of symmetry and definiteness of the coupling matrix. Therefore, we use an iterative method for solving the boundary integral equation by exp anding the Calderon projector in a Neumann series. Numerical results s how the preciseness and efficiency of the method. (C) 1997 by John Wil ey & Sons, Ltd.