Galerkin boundary integral analysis for the axisymmetric Laplace equation

The boundary integral equation for the axisymmetric Laplace equation is solved by employing modified Galerkin weight functions. The alternative weights smooth out the singularity of the Green's function at the symmetry axis, and restore symmetry to the formulation. As a consequence, special treatment of the axis equations is avoided, and a symmetric-Galerkin formulation would be possible. For the singular integration, the integrals containing a logarithmic singularity are converted to a non-singular form and evaluated partially analytically and partially. numerically. The modified weight functions, together with a boundary limit definition, also result in a simple algorithm for the post-processing of the surface gradient. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.