BEM-FEM coupling analysis of the two-dimensional elastic wave field in steady state

As a numerical technique, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is versatile for evaluating problems with complex geometries and materials. It is, however, not efficiently applicable to problems of wave scattering in an infinite domain. The Boundary Element Method (BEM) has been used very effectively in elastic wave problems with a homogeneous infinite domain. Therefore, it is reasonable to coupled the FEM with the BEM in order to provide a single methodology for analyzing problems including non-homogeneous materials in an infinite domain. In the present paper, a method to couple a BEM domain with a FEM domain is proposed on the basis of the variational principle. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method, P, SV and SH wave fields were investigated. From the results, applicability of the proposed method is discussed.