THERMAL-ANALYSIS FOR 2-DIMENSIONAL FRACTURE PROBLEMS USING THE BOUNDARY-ELEMENT ALTERNATING METHOD

The boundary element alternating technique which combines the advantages of the boundary element method and Schwarz's alternating technique is established to analyze the temperature field for a finite plate with single or multiple insulated cracks. By this method, an efficient technique for treating the interaction effects among multiple cracks is developed. Since the boundary element mesh adopted is independent of the number, length, location, and orientation of the existing cracks, only a very simple boundary element mesh is needed in analyzing the problems. Economic computer costs are observed even in comparison with the finite element alternating method. Several examples are solved to demonstrate the high efficiency and accuracy of this method.