Static analysis of Gradient Elastic 3-D solids with surface energy by BEM

Abstract: A three dimensional (3-D) boundary element methodology (BEM) is presented for the static analysis of three-dimensional solids and structures on the basis of a combination of the gradient elastic theories of Mindlin and Aifantis enhanced with surface energy terms, as described by Vardoulakis and co-workers. The gradient elastic fundamental solution as well as the boundary integral representations for displacements and their normal derivatives are presented. Quadratic quadrilateral boundary elements are employed and the singular integrals are numerically computed using advanced algorithms. A numerical example demonstrates the accuracy of the above methodology