Element methods using modified variational formulation

A novel method is proposed by coupling the Element Free Galerkin (EFG) and the Hybrid Boundary Element (HBE) methods to achieve solution efficiency and accuracy for stress analysis in solids. A modified variational formulation is derived for the present coupled EFG/HBE method so that the continuity and compatibility can be preserved on the interface between the domains of EFG and HBE. The coupled EFG/HBE method has been coded in FORTRAN. The validity and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated through a number of example problems. It is found that the present method can take advantages of both EFG and HBE methods. The present method is very easy to implement, and very flexible for obtaining displacements and stresses of desired accuracy in solids, as the efforts for meshing the problem domain have been significantly reduced due to the use of Boundary Element Method (BEM)