Boundary element formulations in elastoplastic stress analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a review of different elasto-plastic Boundary Element (BE) formulations with particular emphasis on two main approaches; the initial strain displacement-gradient approach with its modeling of the partial or full interior domain, and the particular integral approach which can be applied exclusively to the surface avoiding any modeling interior. The initial strain formulation is implemented in a computer program using two-dimensional isoparametric quatratic elements to discretise either the complete interior domain or only the part associated with the plastic region. The BE solutions are shown to be in good agreement with analytical and Finite Element (FE) solutions.