Boundary element method
Encyclopedia
The boundary element method (BEM) is a numerical computational method of solving linear partial differential equations which have been formulated as integral equation
s (i.e. in boundary integral form). It can be applied in many areas of engineering and science including fluid mechanics
, acoustics
, electromagnetics, and fracture mechanics
. (In electromagnetics, the more traditional term "method of moments" is often, though not always, synonymous with "boundary element method".)
BEM is applicable to problems for which Green's function
s can be calculated. These usually involve fields in linear
homogeneous
media. This places considerable restrictions on the range and generality of problems to which boundary elements can usefully be applied. Nonlinearities can be included in the formulation, although they will generally introduce volume integrals which then require the volume to be discretised before solution can be attempted, removing one of the most often cited advantages of BEM. A useful technique for treating the volume integral without discretising the volume is the dual-reciprocity method. The technique approximates part of the integrand using radial basis functions (local interpolating functions) and converts the volume integral into boundary integral after collocating at selected points distributed throughout the volume domain (including the boundary). In the dual-reciprocity BEM, although there is no need to discretize the volume into meshes, unknowns at chosen points inside the solution domain are involved in the linear algebraic equations approximating the problem being considered.
The Green's function elements connecting pairs of source and field patches defined by the mesh form a matrix, which is solved numerically. Unless the Green's function is well behaved, at least for pairs of patches near each other, the Green's function must be integrated over either or both the source patch and the field patch. The form of the method in which the integrals over the source and field patches are the same is called "Galerkin's method". Galerkin's method is the obvious approach for problems which are symmetrical with respect to exchanging the source and field points. In frequency domain electromagnetics, this is assured by electromagnetic reciprocity
. The cost of computation involved in naive Galerkin implementations is typically quite severe. One must loop over elements twice (so we get n2 passes through) and for each pair of elements we loop through Gauss points in the elements producing a multiplicative factor proportional to the number of Gauss-points squared. Also, the function evaluations required are typically quite expensive, involving trigonometric/hyperbolic function calls. Nonetheless, the principal source of the computational cost is this double-loop over elements producing a fully populated matrix.
The Green's functions, or fundamental solutions, are often problematic to integrate as they are based on a solution of the system equations subject to a singularity load (e.g. the electrical field arising from a point charge). Integrating such singular fields is not easy. For simple element geometries (e.g. planar triangles) analytical integration can be used. For more general elements, it is possible to design purely numerical schemes that adapt to the singularity, but at great computational cost. Of course, when source point and target element (where the integration is done) are far-apart, the local gradient surrounding the point need not be quantified exactly and it becomes possible to integrate easily due to the smooth decay of the fundamental solution. It is this feature that is typically employed in schemes designed to accelerate boundary element problem calculations.
, finite difference method
, finite volume method
).
Boundary element formulations typically give rise to fully populated matrices. This means that the storage requirements and computational time will tend to grow according to the square of the problem size. By contrast, finite element matrices are typically banded (elements are only locally connected) and the storage requirements for the system matrices typically grow quite linearly with the problem size. Compression techniques (e.g. multipole expansions or adaptive cross approximation/hierarchical matrices
) can be used to ameliorate these problems, though at the cost of added complexity and with a success-rate that depends heavily on the nature of the problem being solved and the geometry involved.
Integral equation
In mathematics, an integral equation is an equation in which an unknown function appears under an integral sign. There is a close connection between differential and integral equations, and some problems may be formulated either way...
s (i.e. in boundary integral form). It can be applied in many areas of engineering and science including fluid mechanics
Fluid mechanics
Fluid mechanics is the study of fluids and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics can be divided into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; fluid kinematics, the study of fluids in motion; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of forces on fluid motion...
, acoustics
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
, electromagnetics, and fracture mechanics
Fracture mechanics
Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics to characterize the material's resistance to fracture.In...
. (In electromagnetics, the more traditional term "method of moments" is often, though not always, synonymous with "boundary element method".)
Mathematical basis
The integral equation may be regarded as an exact solution of the governing partial differential equation. The boundary element method attempts to use the given boundary conditions to fit boundary values into the integral equation, rather than values throughout the space defined by a partial differential equation. Once this is done, in the post-processing stage, the integral equation can then be used again to calculate numerically the solution directly at any desired point in the interior of the solution domain.BEM is applicable to problems for which Green's function
Green's function
In mathematics, a Green's function is a type of function used to solve inhomogeneous differential equations subject to specific initial conditions or boundary conditions...
s can be calculated. These usually involve fields in linear
Linear
In mathematics, a linear map or function f is a function which satisfies the following two properties:* Additivity : f = f + f...
homogeneous
Homogeneity (physics)
In general, homogeneity is defined as the quality or state of being homogeneous . For instance, a uniform electric field would be compatible with homogeneity...
media. This places considerable restrictions on the range and generality of problems to which boundary elements can usefully be applied. Nonlinearities can be included in the formulation, although they will generally introduce volume integrals which then require the volume to be discretised before solution can be attempted, removing one of the most often cited advantages of BEM. A useful technique for treating the volume integral without discretising the volume is the dual-reciprocity method. The technique approximates part of the integrand using radial basis functions (local interpolating functions) and converts the volume integral into boundary integral after collocating at selected points distributed throughout the volume domain (including the boundary). In the dual-reciprocity BEM, although there is no need to discretize the volume into meshes, unknowns at chosen points inside the solution domain are involved in the linear algebraic equations approximating the problem being considered.
The Green's function elements connecting pairs of source and field patches defined by the mesh form a matrix, which is solved numerically. Unless the Green's function is well behaved, at least for pairs of patches near each other, the Green's function must be integrated over either or both the source patch and the field patch. The form of the method in which the integrals over the source and field patches are the same is called "Galerkin's method". Galerkin's method is the obvious approach for problems which are symmetrical with respect to exchanging the source and field points. In frequency domain electromagnetics, this is assured by electromagnetic reciprocity
Reciprocity (electromagnetism)
In classical electromagnetism, reciprocity refers to a variety of related theorems involving the interchange of time-harmonic electric current densities and the resulting electromagnetic fields in Maxwell's equations for time-invariant linear media under certain constraints...
. The cost of computation involved in naive Galerkin implementations is typically quite severe. One must loop over elements twice (so we get n2 passes through) and for each pair of elements we loop through Gauss points in the elements producing a multiplicative factor proportional to the number of Gauss-points squared. Also, the function evaluations required are typically quite expensive, involving trigonometric/hyperbolic function calls. Nonetheless, the principal source of the computational cost is this double-loop over elements producing a fully populated matrix.
The Green's functions, or fundamental solutions, are often problematic to integrate as they are based on a solution of the system equations subject to a singularity load (e.g. the electrical field arising from a point charge). Integrating such singular fields is not easy. For simple element geometries (e.g. planar triangles) analytical integration can be used. For more general elements, it is possible to design purely numerical schemes that adapt to the singularity, but at great computational cost. Of course, when source point and target element (where the integration is done) are far-apart, the local gradient surrounding the point need not be quantified exactly and it becomes possible to integrate easily due to the smooth decay of the fundamental solution. It is this feature that is typically employed in schemes designed to accelerate boundary element problem calculations.
Comparison to other methods
The boundary element method is often more efficient than other methods, including finite elements, in terms of computational resources for problems where there is a small surface/volume ratio . Conceptually, it works by constructing a "mesh" over the modelled surface. However, for many problems boundary element methods are significantly less efficient than volume-discretisation methods (finite element methodFinite element method
The finite element method is a numerical technique for finding approximate solutions of partial differential equations as well as integral equations...
, finite difference method
Finite difference method
In mathematics, finite-difference methods are numerical methods for approximating the solutions to differential equations using finite difference equations to approximate derivatives.- Derivation from Taylor's polynomial :...
, finite volume method
Finite volume method
The finite volume method is a method for representing and evaluating partial differential equations in the form of algebraic equations [LeVeque, 2002; Toro, 1999]....
).
Boundary element formulations typically give rise to fully populated matrices. This means that the storage requirements and computational time will tend to grow according to the square of the problem size. By contrast, finite element matrices are typically banded (elements are only locally connected) and the storage requirements for the system matrices typically grow quite linearly with the problem size. Compression techniques (e.g. multipole expansions or adaptive cross approximation/hierarchical matrices
Hierarchical matrix
In numerical mathematics, hierarchical matrices are used as data-sparse approximations of non-sparse matrices.While a sparse matrix of dimension n can be represented efficiently in O units of storage...
) can be used to ameliorate these problems, though at the cost of added complexity and with a success-rate that depends heavily on the nature of the problem being solved and the geometry involved.
See also
- Analytic element methodAnalytic element methodThe analytic element method is a numerical method used for the solution of partial differential equations. It was initially developed by O.D.L. Strack at the University of Minnesota...
- Electromagnetic modeling
- Meshfree methodsMeshfree methodsMeshfree methods are a particular class of numerical simulation algorithms for the simulation of physical phenomena. Traditional simulation algorithms relied on a grid or a mesh, meshfree methods in contrast use the geometry of the simulated object directly for calculations. Meshfree methods exist...
- Immersed boundary methodImmersed boundary methodThe immersed boundary method is an approach – in computational fluid dynamics – to model and simulate mechanical systems in which elastic structures interact with fluid flows...
External links
- An Online Resource for Boundary Elements
- Heritage and early history of the boundary element method , Alexander H.-D. Cheng & Daisy T. Cheng
- An introductory BEM course (with a chapter on Green's functions)
- Electromagnetic Modeling web site at Clemson University (includes list of currently available software)
- Concept Analyst Boundary Element Analysis software
- Klimpke, Bruce A Hybrid Magnetic Field Solver Using a Combined Finite Element/Boundary Element Field Solver, U.K. Magnetics Society Conference, 2003 which compares FEM and BEM methods as well as hybrid approaches
Free software
- boundary-element-method.com An open-source BEM software for solving acoustics / Helmholtz and Laplace problems.
- Puma-EM An open-source and high performance Method of Moments / Multilevel Fast Multipole Method parallel program
- AcouSTO Acoustics Simulation TOol, a free and open-source parallel BEM solver for the Kirchhoff-Helmholtz Integral Equation (KHIE)
- ParaFEM Includes the free and open-source parallel BEM solver for elasticity problems described in Gernot Beer , Ian Smith , Christian Duenser, The Boundary Element Method with Programming: For Engineers and Scientists, Springer, ISBN 978-3211715741 (2008)