Static and dynamic boundary element analysis in incompressible linear elasticity

The boundary element formulation of incompressible, isotropic, linear elastostatics and frequency domain elastodynamics for the displacements and hydrostatic pressure is presented. Both two-and three-dimensional problems are considered. It is proven that the incompressible fundamental tensors can be obtained from the corresponding compressible ones by simply putting the Poisson ratio nu equal to 0.5 in elastostatics and the p-wavenumber ii, equal to zero in elastodynamics. The various kernels employed in a complete static or dynamic boundary element analysis for the compressible case are written in a modified form that permits one to use already existing codes for compressible, incompressible or nearly incompressible cases without any problem. Numerical examples involving two-and three-dimensional problems under static and dynamic conditions are presented. These examples serve to illustrate the method and demonstrate its high accuracy and efficiency. (C) Elsevier, Paris.