Non-singular time domain BEM with applications to 3D inertial soil–structure interaction

Abstract

A direct time domain boundary element method is presented based on the Stokes fundamental solutions, discretized in both time and space, and an efficient time step-by-step solution that minimizes the accumulation of errors. A non-singular numerical integration procedure, in the Cauchy sense, is proposed for the generation of the associated influence matrices. This methodology is shown to be efficient for the solution of a number of computationally intensive problems in the area of soil–structure interaction. In addition, an algorithm for the direct calculation of the response of massive foundations to externally applied forces and/or obliquely incident seismic waves is introduced. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed methodologies is established through a number of comparison studies.