THE EMBEDDING INTEGRAL AND THE TREFFTZ METHOD FOR POTENTIAL PROBLEMS WITH PARTITIONING

The embedding integral equation method is an integral equation formulation for engineering problems similar to but distinct from the well known boundary integral equation method. Both of these formulations may be solved by either element or eigenfunction expansion techniques. The embedding integral formulation will be applied here to potential problems, in particular to steady-state heat conduction, with an eigenfunction expansion technique such that the similarity between the embedding integral mehod and the well known Trefftz method can be seen. This is followed by discussion of the corresponding element solution. In particular, the advantages of partitioning for irregular geometries can be seen for both approaches.