A Galerkin boundary integral method for multiple circular elastic inclusions

The problem of an infinite, isotropic elastic plane containing an arbitrary number of circular elastic inclusions is considered. The analysis procedur e is based on the use of a complex singular integral equation. The unknown tractions at each circular boundary are approximated by a truncated complex Fourier series. A system of linear algebraic equations is obtained by usin g the classical Galerkin method and the Gauss-Seidel algorithm is used to s olve the system. Several numerical examples are considered to demonstrate t he effectiveness of the approach. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd .