The elastostatic three-dimensional boundary element method: analytical integration for linear isoparametric triangular elements

In this paper an analytical integration scheme is described that is designed to reduce the errors resulting from the numerical evaluation of integrals with singular integrands. The analytical scheme can be applied to linear triangular elements for use in elastostatic problems and is particularly useful for predicting distortion, to high accuracy, close to surfaces. It is demonstrated that although the analytical scheme takes longer computationally than the usual quadrature approach it is quicker when element subdivision is required to achieve reasonable accuracy. Numerical tests are performed on a simple test problem to demonstrate the advantages of the analytical approach, which is shown to be orders of magnitude more accurate than standard quadrature techniques. (C) 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc.