Integral equation methods for Stokes flow and isotropic elasticity in the plane

We present a class of integral equation methods for the solution of biharmonic boundary value problems, with applications to two-dimensional Stokes flow and isotropic elasticity. The domains may be multiply-connected and finite, infinite or semi-infinite in extent. Our analytic formulation is based on complex variables, and our fast multipole-based iterative solution procedure requires O(N) operations, where N is the number of nodes in the discretization of the boundary. The performance of the methods is illustrated with several large-scale numerical examples. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.