A HYBRID DISPLACEMENT VARIATIONAL FORMULATION OF BEM FOR ELASTOSTATICS

A variational formulation for symmetric positive definite BEM is derived by using a hybrid displacement functional. The functional is expressed in terms of domain and boundary variables, assumed as independent from one another. The resulting equations involve only boundary displacement variables and the approach gives symmetric and positive definite matrices which can be combined with finite elements. The accuracy and efficiency of the method is tested through comparison of some typical results.