A coupled element free Galerkin/boundary element method for stress analysis of two-dimensional solids

Element free Galerkin (EFG) method is a newly developed meshless method for solving partial differential equations using Moving Least-Squares interpolants. It is, however, computationally expensive for many problems. A coupled EFG/boundary element (BE) method is proposed in this paper to improve the solution efficiency. A procedure is developed for the coupled EFG/BE method so that the continuity and compatibility are preserved on the interface of the two domains, where the EFG and BE methods are applied. The present coupled EFG/BE method has been coded in FORTRAN. The validity and efficiency of the EFG/BE method are demonstrated through a number of examples. It is found that the present method can take the full advantages of both EFG and BE methods. It is very easy to implement, and very flexible for computing displacements and stresses of desired accuracy in solids with or without infinite domains. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.