Coupling BEM, FEM and analytic solutions in steady-state potential problems

Problems solved by using different steady-state solution techniques in adjacent subregions are discussed. The computational domain typically consists of two subregions, with a linear boundary value problem in one of them. BEM or analytical methods are used to solve the problem in this subregion. Static condensation of the off-interfacial degrees of freedom in this subdomain produces a linear set of equations linking nodal potentials and fluxes on the interface. This set of equations is generated by solving a sequence of boundary value problems in the linear subregion. Access to the source version of the software used to solve these boundary value problems is not required. Thus, the condensation can be accomplished using any commercial BEM code. The resulting set of equation is then treated as a boundary condition attached to the second subregion. In the latter, any numerical technique can be used and both linear and nonlinear problems may be considered. The paper addresses coupling of BEM and FEM, BEM and BEM and analytical solutions with BEM and FEM. Numerical examples are included.