Practical Guide to Boundary Element Methods with the Software Library BEMLIB

Abstract

5R41. Practical Guide to Boundary Element Methods with the Software Library BEMLIB. - C Pozrikidis (UCSD). Chapman and Hall/CRC, Boca Raton FL. 2002. 423 pp. ISBN 1-58488-323-5. $99.95.Reviewed by Jeng-Tzong Chen (Dept of Harbor and River Eng, Natl Taiwan Ocean Univ, PO Box 7-59, Keelung, Taiwan, 202, ROC).This book provides a concise introduction to the theory and implementation of the boundary element method (BEM). It emphasizes programing aspects with the software library BEMLIB, available from the internet site http://bemlib.ucsd.edu or http://stokes.ucsd.edu. Well over a dozen textbooks on the BEM have been published over the years. Many of these have been written by authors whose background is in solid mechanics, as opposed to fluid mechanics; few books include problems and exercises. The present book provides problems in the end of each section to complement and extend the theory. As is common with other books on BEM, this text begins with the integral formulation and boundary-element implementation of Laplace equations (1D, 2D, and 3D) in Chapters 1–5. Indirect formulations in terms of single-layer and double-layer representations for 2D cases are developed in Chapter 2, and axisymmetric formulations are discussed in Chapter 4. Special topics, including the treatment of inhomogeneous, nonlinear, and time-dependent problems are discussed in Chapter 6. The method of particular solutions and the dual reciprocity BEM are addressed to transform domain integrals for 1D, 2D, and 3D problems. Since the author’s background is in fluid mechanics, this topic is further discussed in Chapter 7, and corresponding material in elasticity is given in an Appendix in the form of a primer.The user guide of BEMLIB is given in Chapter 8. Although this book can be used as a text in a course, it contains some original results regarding the application of radial basis function (RBF) and the regularization of hypersingularity. The user guide of the software library will be of practical interest to students and engineers. This book will be read by graduate students and engineers. The generation of lines and surfaces for 2D and 3D problems, respectively, is given in Chapter 9. A handy user manual of the three programs for Laplace, Helmholtz, and Stokes flow are given in Chapters 10–12. The source files are available from the website. The author has succeeded in fulfilling his aim of dual-purpose by providing a textbook for teachers, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as a reference for researchers and engineers. The quality of print and figures is adequate. In general, Practical Guide to Boundary Element Methods with the Software Library BEMLIB is a well-written book and is recommended to individuals and libraries.