A unified formulation and error estimation measure for the direct and the indirect boundary element methods in elasticity

In this paper, given a boundary value problem for a finite elastic body in two-dimensions, a problem of representing the solution by layers of point f orces (F-j) and Somigliana dislocations (B-j) is considered in the infinite homogeneous body that contains the original finite body. In the boundary e lement method (BEM) solution, either the boundary displacement or traction component at each node is specified, but not both. This provides us a degre e of freedom to arbitrarily specify the proportion of the densities F-j and B-j to be used in the direct and the indirect BEM formulations. The nature of the BEM solution errors is identified and a unified error estimation me asure with a mesh refinement scheme for both formulations is proposed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All fights reserved.