Coupling FEM and discontinuous BEM for elastostatics and fluid–structure interaction

Abstract

This paper presents a new method to couple the finite element method (FEM) and the discontinuous boundary element method (BEM) for fluid–structure interaction and 2D elastostatics. The converting matrix for coupling the FEM and the discontinuous BEM is obtained in an explicit form; and the relationship between the physical variables at the FEM nodes and those at the BEM collocation points is established. The proposed method overcomes the numerical difficulties caused by the discontinuous traction and corner nodes, and was applied to a fluid–structure interaction problem in time domain, a 2D elastostatics problem and the patch test given in Lu et al. [Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. 85 (1991) 21]. The results indicate that the proposed method is accurate and efficient.