Improved design of special boundary elements for T-shaped reinforced concrete walls

This study examines the design provisions of the Chinese GB 50011-2010 code for seismic design of buildings for the special boundary elements of T-shaped reinforced concrete walls and proposes an improved design method. Comparison of the design provisions of the GB 50011-2010 code and those of the American code ACI 318-14 indicates a possible deficiency in the T-shaped wall design provisions in GB 50011-2010. A case study of a typical T-shaped wall designed in accordance with GB 50011-2010 also indicates the insufficient extent of the boundary element at the non-flange end and overly conservative design of the flange end boundary element. Improved designs for special boundary elements ofT-shaped walls are developed using a displacement-based method. The proposed design formulas produce a longer boundary element at the non-flange end and a shorter boundary element at the flange end, relative to those of the GB 50011-2010 provisions. Extensive numerical analysis indicates that T-shaped walls designed using the proposed formulas develop inelastic drift of 0.01 for both cases of the flange in compression and in tension.

Enriched Constant Elements in the Boundary Element Method for Solving 2D Acoustic Problems at Higher Frequencies

The boundary element method(BEM)is a popular method for solving acoustic wave propagation problems,especially those in exterior domains,owing to its ease in handling radiation conditions at infinity.However,BEM models must meet the requirement of 6–10 elements per wavelength,using the conventional constant,linear,or quadratic elements.Therefore,a large storage size of memory and long solution time are often needed in solving higher-frequency problems.In this work,we propose two new types of enriched elements based on conventional constant boundary elements to improve the computational efficiency of the 2D acoustic BEM.The first one uses a plane wave expansion,which can be used to model scattering problems.The second one uses a special plane wave expansion,which can be used tomodel radiation problems.Five examples are investigated to showthe advantages of the enriched elements.Compared with the conventional constant elements,the new enriched elements can deliver results with the same accuracy and in less computational time.This improvement in the computational efficiency is more evident at higher frequencies(with the nondimensional wave numbers exceeding 100).The paper concludes with the potential of our proposed enriched elements and plans for their further improvement.

The Boundary Element Method for Ordinary State-Based Peridynamics

The peridynamics(PD),as a promising nonlocal continuum mechanics theory,shines in solving discontinuous problems.Up to now,various numerical methods,such as the peridynamic mesh-free particlemethod(PD-MPM),peridynamic finite element method(PD-FEM),and peridynamic boundary element method(PD-BEM),have been proposed.PD-BEM,in particular,outperforms other methods by eliminating spurious boundary softening,efficiently handling infinite problems,and ensuring high computational accuracy.However,the existing PD-BEM is constructed exclusively for bond-based peridynamics(BBPD)with fixed Poisson’s ratio,limiting its applicability to crack propagation problems and scenarios involving infinite or semi-infinite problems.In this paper,we address these limitations by introducing the boundary element method(BEM)for ordinary state-based peridynamics(OSPD-BEM).Additionally,we present a crack propagationmodel embeddedwithin the framework ofOSPD-BEM to simulate crack propagations.To validate the effectiveness of OSPD-BEM,we conduct four numerical examples:deformation under uniaxial loading,crack initiation in a double-notched specimen,wedge-splitting test,and threepoint bending test.The results demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of OSPD-BEM,highlighting its capability to successfully eliminate spurious boundary softening phenomena under varying Poisson’s ratios.Moreover,OSPDBEMsignificantly reduces computational time and exhibits greater consistencywith experimental results compared to PD-MPM.

Generalized nth-Order Perturbation Method Based on Loop Subdivision Surface Boundary Element Method for Three-Dimensional Broadband Structural Acoustic Uncertainty Analysis

In this paper,a generalized nth-order perturbation method based on the isogeometric boundary element method is proposed for the uncertainty analysis of broadband structural acoustic scattering problems.The Burton-Miller method is employed to solve the problem of non-unique solutions that may be encountered in the external acoustic field,and the nth-order discretization formulation of the boundary integral equation is derived.In addition,the computation of loop subdivision surfaces and the subdivision rules are introduced.In order to confirm the effectiveness of the algorithm,the computed results are contrasted and analyzed with the results under Monte Carlo simulations(MCs)through several numerical examples.

THE COUPLING METHOD OF FINITE ELEMENTS AND BOUNDARY ELEMENTS FOR RADIATION PROBLEM

The paper presents the variational formulation and well posedness of the coupling method offinite elements and boundary elements for radiation problem. The convergence and optimal errorestimate for the approximate solution and numerical experiment are provided.

Analysis of Bone Remodeling Under Piezoelectricity Effects Using Boundary Elements

Piezoelectric materials exhibit a response to mechanical-electrical coupling, which represents an important contribution to the electrical-mechanical interaction in bone remodeling process. Therefore, the study of the piezoelectric effect on bone re- modeling has high interest in applied biomechanics. The effects of mechano-regulation and electrical stimulation on bone healing are explained. The Boundary Element Method （BEM） is used to simulate piezoelectric effects on bones when shearing forces are applied to collagen fibers to make them slip past each other. The piezoelectric fundamental solutions are obtained by using the Radon transform. The Dual Reciprocity Method （DRM） is used to simulate the particular solutions in time-dependent problems. BEM analysis showed the strong influence of electrical stimulation on bone remodeling. The examples discussed in this work showed that, as expected, the electrically loaded bone surfaces improved the bone deposition. BEM results confirmed previous findings obtained by using the Finite Element Method （FEM）. This work opens very promising doors in biomechanics research, showing that mechanical loads can be replaced, in part, by electrical charges that stimulate strengthening bone density. The obtained results herein are in good agreement with those found in literature from experimental testing and/or other simu- lation approaches.

Boundary Element Analysis forModeⅢCrack Problems of Thin-Walled Structures from Micro-to Nano-Scales

This paper develops a new numerical framework for modeⅢcrack problems of thin-walled structures by integrating multiple advanced techniques in the boundary element literature.The details of special crack-tip elements for displacement and stress are derived.An exponential transformation technique is introduced to accurately calculate the nearly singular integral,which is the key task of the boundary element simulation of thin-walled structures.Three numerical experiments with different types of cracks are provided to verify the performance of the present numerical framework.Numerical results demonstrate that the present scheme is valid for modeⅢcrack problems of thin-walled structures with the thickness-to-length ratio in the microscale,even nanoscale,regime.

Geometric Conversion Approach for the Numerical Evaluation of Hypersin gular and Nearly Hypersingular Boundary Integrals over Curved Surface Boundary Elements

With the aid of the properties of the hypersingular kernels, a geometric conversion approach was presented in this paper. The conversion leads to a general approach for the accurate and reliable numerical evaluation of the hypersingular surface boundary integrals encountered in a variety of applications with boundary element method. Based on the conversion, the hypersingularity in the boundary integrals could be lowered by one order, resulting in the simplification of the computer code. Moreover, an integral transformation was introduced to damp out the nearly singular behavior of the kernels by the distance function defined in the local polar coordinate system for the nearly hypersingular case. The approach is simple to use, which can be inserted readily to computer code, thus getting rid of the dull routine deduction of formulae before the numerical implementations, as the expressions of these kernels are in general complicated. The numerical examples were given in three dimensional elasticity, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which makes it possible to observe numerically the behavior of the boundary integral values with hypersingular kernels across the boundary.

Calculation of 3D Sensitivity Matrix for Electromagnetic Tomography System Using Boundary Elements and the Perturbative Approach

Electromagnetic tomography(EMT) is a non-invasive imaging technique capable of mapping the conductivity and permeability of an object. In EMT, eddy currents are induced in the object by the activation coils,and the receiving coils can measure the EMT voltages. When the activation frequency is significantly large, we can treat the metallic targets as electrically perfect conductors(EPCs). In this situation, a thin skin approximation is reasonable and this type of scattering problem can be effectively treated by the boundary element method(BEM)formulated through integration equations. In this study, we compute three-dimensional(3D) sensitivity matrix between the sensors due to an EPC perturbation. Efficiency improvement is achieved through the utility of scalar magnetic potential. Two EPC objects, one sphere and one cube shaped, are simulated. The results agree well with the H dot H formula. Overall, we conclude that BEM can be used to calculate the 3D sensitivity matrix of an EMT system efficiently. This method is a general one for any shaped objects while the H dot H solution is only capable of producing the response for a small ball.

Wave Radiation by a Floating Body in Water of Finite Depth Using an Exact DtN Boundary Condition

The present paper focuses on the wave radiation by an oscillating body with six degrees of freedom by using the DtN artifi-cial boundary condition.The artificial boundary is usually selected as a circle or spherical surface to solve various types of fields,such as sound waves or electromagnetic waves,provided that the considered domain is infinite or unbounded in all directions.However,the substantial wave motion is considered in water of finite depth,that is,the fluid domain is bounded vertically but unbounded horizon-tally.Thus,the DtN boundary condition is given on an artificial cylindrical surface,which divides the water domain into an interior and exterior region.The boundary integral equation is adopted to implement the present model.In the case of a floating cylinder,the results of hydrodynamic coefficients of a chamfer box are discussed.

Topology Optimization of Sound-Absorbing Materials for Two-Dimensional Acoustic Problems Using Isogeometric Boundary Element Method

In this work,an acoustic topology optimizationmethod for structural surface design covered by porous materials is proposed.The analysis of acoustic problems is performed using the isogeometric boundary elementmethod.Taking the element density of porousmaterials as the design variable,the volume of porousmaterials as the constraint,and the minimum sound pressure or maximum scattered sound power as the design goal,the topology optimization is carried out by solid isotropic material with penalization(SIMP)method.To get a limpid 0–1 distribution,a smoothing Heaviside-like function is proposed.To obtain the gradient value of the objective function,a sensitivity analysis method based on the adjoint variable method(AVM)is proposed.To find the optimal solution,the optimization problems are solved by the method of moving asymptotes(MMA)based on gradient information.Numerical examples verify the effectiveness of the proposed topology optimization method in the optimization process of two-dimensional acoustic problems.Furthermore,the optimal distribution of sound-absorbingmaterials is highly frequency-dependent and usually needs to be performed within a frequency band.

Error Analysis of A New Higher Order Boundary Element Method for A Uniform Flow Passing Cylinders

A higher order boundary element method(HOBEM)is presented for inviscid flow passing cylinders in bounded or unbounded domain.The traditional boundary integral equation is established with respect to the velocity potential and its normal derivative.In present work,a new integral equation is derived for the tangential velocity.The boundary is discretized into higher order elements to ensure the continuity of slope at the element nodes.The velocity potential is also expanded with higher order shape functions,in which the unknown coefficients involve the tangential velocity.The expansion then ensures the continuities of the velocity and the slope of the boundary at element nodes.Through extensive comparison of the results for the analytical solution of cylinders,it is shown that the present HOBEM is much more accurate than the conventional BEM.

Three-dimensional acoustic propagation model for shallow waters based on an indirect boundary element method

This work has a two-fold purpose.On the one hand,the theoretical formulation of a three-dimensional(3D)acoustic propagation model for shallow waters with a constant sound speed is presented,based on the boundary element method(BEM),which uses a half-space Green function instead of the more conventional free-space Green function.On the other hand,a numerical implementation is illustrated to explore the formulation in simple idealized cases,controlled by a few parameters,which provides necessary tests for the accuracy and performance of the model.The half-space Green's function,which has been previously used in scattering and diffraction,adds terms to the usual expressions of the integral operators without altering their continuity properties.Verifications against the wavenumber integration solution of the Pekeris waveguide suggest that the model allows an adequate prediction for the acoustic field.Likewise,numerical experiments in relation to the necessary mesh size for the description of the water-marine sediment interface lead to the conclusion that a transmission loss prediction with acceptable accuracy can be obtained with the use of a limited mesh around the desired evaluation region.

The influence of reflections from the train body and the ground on the sound radiation from a railway rail

Purpose – The vibration of the rails is a significant source of railway rolling noise, often forming the dominantcomponent of noise in the important frequency region between 400 and 2000 Hz. The purpose of the paper is toinvestigate the influence of the ground profile and the presence of the train body on the sound radiation fromthe rail.Design/methodology/approach – Two-dimensional boundary element calculations are used, in which therail vibration is the source. The ground profile and various different shapes of train body are introduced in themodel, and results are observed in terms of sound power and sound pressure. Comparisons are also made withvibro-acoustic measurements performed with and without a train present.Findings – The sound radiated by the rail in the absence of the train body is strongly attenuated by shieldingdue to the ballast shoulder. When the train body is present, the sound from the vertical rail motion is reflectedback down toward the track where it is partly absorbed by the ballast. Nevertheless, the sound pressure at thetrackside is increased by typically 0–5 dB. For the lateral vibration of the rail, the effects are much smaller. Oncethe sound power is known, the sound pressure with the train present can be approximated reasonably well withsimple line source directivities.Originality/value – Numerical models used to predict the sound radiation from railway rails have generallyneglected the influence of the ground profile and reflections from the underside of the train body on the soundpower and directivity of the rail. These effects are studied in a systematic way including comparisons with measurements.

Scattering of Water Waves by Dual Symmetric Inclined Floating Porous Barriers Using the DBEM

The scattering of normally incident water waves by two surface-piercing inclined perforated barriers in water with a uniform finite depth is investigated within the framework of linear water wave theory.Considering that thin barriers are zero-thickness,a novel numerical method involving the the coupling of the dual boundary element method(DBEM)with damping layers is applied.In order to effectively damp out the reflected waves,two damping layers,instead of pseudoboundaries are implemented near the two side boundaries of the computational domain.Thus,the modified linearized free surface boundary conditions are formulated and used for solving both the ordinary boundary integral equation as well as the hypersingular boundary integral equation for degenerate boundaries.The newly developed numerical method is validated against analytical methods using the matched eigenfunction expansion method for the special case of two vertical barriers or the inclined angle to the vertical being zero.The influence of the length of the two damping layers has been discussed.Moreover,these findings are also validated against previous results for several cases.After validation,the numerical results for the reflection coefficient,transmission coefficient and dissipation coefficient are obtained by varying the inclination angle and porosity-effect parameter.The effects of both the inclination angle and the porosity on the amplitudes of wave forces acting on both the front and rear barriers are also investigated.It is found that the effect of the inclination angle mainly shifts the location of the extremal values of the reflection and the transmission coefficients.Additionally,a moderate value of the porosity-parameter is quite effective at dissipating wave energy and mitigating the wave loads on dual barriers.

A Subdivision-Based Combined Shape and Topology Optimization in Acoustics

We propose a combined shape and topology optimization approach in this research for 3D acoustics by using the isogeometric boundary element method with subdivision surfaces.The existing structural optimization methods mainly contain shape and topology schemes,with the former changing the surface geometric profile of the structure and the latter changing thematerial distribution topology or hole topology of the structure.In the present acoustic performance optimization,the coordinates of the control points in the subdivision surfaces fine mesh are selected as the shape design parameters of the structure,the artificial density of the sound absorbing material covered on the structure surface is set as the topology design parameter,and the combined topology and shape optimization approach is established through the sound field analysis of the subdivision surfaces boundary element method as a bridge.The topology and shape sensitivities of the approach are calculated using the adjoint variable method,which ensures the efficiency of the optimization.The geometric jaggedness and material distribution discontinuities that appear in the optimization process are overcome to a certain degree by the multiresolution method and solid isotropic material with penalization.Numerical examples are given to validate the effectiveness of the presented optimization approach.

Numerical modeling techniques for noise emission of free railway wheels

In this article,we consider the numerical prediction of the noise emission from a wheelset in laboratory conditions.We focus on the fluid-structure interaction leading to sound emission in the fluid domain by analyzing three different methods to account for acoustic sources.These are a discretized baffled piston using the discrete calculation method(DCM),a closed cylindrical volume using the boundary element method(BEM)and radiating elastic disks in a cubic enclosure solved with the finite element method(FEM).We provide the validation of the baffled piston and the BEM using measurements of the noise emission of a railway wheel by considering ground reflections in the numerical models.Selected space-resolved waveforms are compared with experimental results as well as with a fluid-structure interaction finite element model.The computational advantage of a discretized disk mounted on a baffle and BEM compared to FEM is highlighted,and the baffled pistons limitations caused by a lack of edge radiation effects are investigated.

Wave Reflection by Rectangular Breakwaters for Coastal Protection

In this study,we focus on the numerical modelling of the interaction between waves and submerged structures in the presence of a uniform flow current.Both the same and opposite senses of wave propagation are considered.The main objective is an understanding of the effect of the current and various geometrical parameters on the reflection coefficient.The wave used in the study is based on potential theory,and the submerged structures consist of two rectangular breakwaters positioned at a fixed distance from each other and attached to the bottom of a wave flume.The numerical modeling approach employed in this work relies on the Boundary Element Method(BEM).The results are compared with experimental data to validate the approach.The findings of the study demonstrate that the double rectangular breakwater configuration exhibits superior wave attenuation abilities if compared to a single rectangular breakwater,particularly at low wavenumbers.Furthermore,the study reveals that wave mitigation is more pronounced when the current and wave propagation are coplanar,whereas it is less effective in the case of opposing current.

Forward Calculation of 2-D and 3-D Structures with a Cover by the Boundary Element Method while Using Electrical Methods

This paper develops the boundary element method, the authors employ two-layered earth Green 's functions as the weighting functions of residual and derive boundary integral equations. The forward problems of point sources on 2 - D and 3-D structures with an influencing cover are solved by this method. The results show that this method markedly improves the original boundary element method. The features of the improved method are greater numerical accuracy and much smaller systems of equations and thus considerable savings for the storage capacity of computers, allowing us to solve the above problems with only ordinary microcomputers. The results in this paper extend the scope of applying the boundary element method while using electrical methods for geophysical prospecting.

Three-Dimensional Boundary Element Method Applied to Nonlinear Wave Transformation

For higher accuracy in simulating the transformation of three dimensional waves, in consideration of the advantages of constant panels and linear elements, a combined boundary elements is applied in this research. The method can be used to remove the transverse vibration due to the accumulation of computational errors. A combined boundary condition of sponge layer and Sommerfeld radiation condition is used to remove the reflected waves from the computing domain. By following the water particle on the water surface, the third order Stokes wave transform is simulated by the numerical wave flume technique. The computed results are in good agreement with theoretical ones.