The direct method of lines for the problem of infinite elastic foundation Original Research Article

We consider the numerical simulation for the problem of infinite elastic foundation. A polygonal artificial boundary is introduced and a discrete artificial boundary condition on it is presented by using the direct method of lines. Then, the original problem is reduced to a boundary value problem on a bounded computational domain, which is solved by the finite element method. In addition, we prove an optimal a priori error bound for the displacement in the bounded computational domain. Finally, numerical example shows that the discrete artificial boundary condition given in this paper is very effective and more accurate than Neumann boundary condition which is often used in engineering literatures.