Structure Calculations in Viscoplasticity: Comparison between Finite Element and Boundary Integral Equation Methods.

After recalling the main characteristics of the boundary integral equations, BIE, method as compared to the finite element method, FEM, the author presents an extension of these two methods to the case of the nonlinear cyclic viscoplastic behavior. The author then compares the required computation times for the BIE and FEM methods, respectively, when applied to the same structure; this comparison is made for several examples which show that the BIE method is generally less time consuming than the FEM method, even if a meshing of the interior of the body is required.