Infinite boundary elements for the analysis of halfspace problems

This paper describes an efficient infinite element approach for the boundary element analysis of half-space problems. A decay function for stress analysis is then developed based on the theoretical displacement attenuation away from the source of loading. Efficient order-adaptive criteria are derived for numerical integration of the integrals over the infinite boundary elements and illustrative results for rectangular foundation demonstrate the potential of the formulation. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.