Symmetric coupling of multi-zone curved Galerkin boundary elements with finite elements in elasticity

The coupling of Finite Element Method (FEM) with a Boundary Element Method (BEM) is a desirable result that exploits the advantages of each. This paper examines the e$cient symmetric coupling of a Symmetric Galerkin Multi-zone Curved Boundary Element Analysis method with a Finite Element Method for 2-D elastic problems. Existing collocation based multi-zone boundary element methods are not symmetric. Thus, when they are coupled with FEM, it is very di$cult to achieve symmetry, increasing the computational work to solve the problem. This paper uses a fully Symmetric curved Multi-zone Galerkin Boundary Element Approach that is coupled to an FEM in a completely symmetric fashion. The symmetry is achieved by symmetrically converting the boundary zones into equivalent ¯o "nite elementsʹ, that are symmetric, so that symmetry in the coupling is retained. This computationally e$cient and fast approach can be used to solve a wide range of problems, although only 2-D elastic problems are shown. Three elasticity problems, including one from the FEM-BEM literature that explore the e$cacy of the approach are presented