A boundary element formulation for boundary only analysis of thin shallow shells

This paper presents a boundary element formulation for the analysis of thin shallow shells. Classical plate bending and plane elasticity formulations are coupled and effects of curvature are treated as body forces. The body forces are written as a sum of approximation functions multiplied by coefficients. Domain integrals that arise in the formulation are transformed into boundary integrals by the radial integration method. Two different approximation functions are employed, that is 1 + r and r2 logr. The method is applied to several problems and the accuracy of each approximation function is assessed by comparison with results from literature. Copyright © 2008 Tech Science Press.