A 3-D boundary element method for dynamic analysis of anisotropic elastic solids

A Boundary Element formulation is presented for the solution of three-dimen sional problems of anisotropic elastodynamics. Due to the complexity of the dynamic fundamental solutions for anisotropic materials and the resulting high computational costs, the approach at hand uses the fundamental solutio n of the static operator. This leads to a domain integral in the representa tion formula which contains the inertia term. The domain integral can be tr ansformed to the boundary using the Dual Reciprocity Method. This results i n a system of ordinary differential equations in time with time-independent matrices. Several general questions concerning the anisotropic solutions, the use of DRM, and the choice of the time stepping scheme are investigated by numerical examples, and the capacity of the method for the solution of forced vibration problems and transient analyses is demonstrated. The resul ts show excellent agreement for the displacements, and an improved accuracy in stress calculations when compared to Finite Element analyses.