AN ALGORITHM FOR HANDLING CORNERS IN THE BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD - APPLICATION TO CONDUCTION-CONVECTION EQUATIONS

Accurate and efficient determination of temperatures and fluxes along with their design sensitivities in conduction-convection problems involving geometric or generalized corners is the primary objective of this paper. A boundary element method (BEM) approach is used for this purpose, and the design sensitivities are obtained through direct differentiation of the governing integral equations. Conforming elements are used, and corners are treated through constraint equations. Several numerical results are presented, and a few of them are compared with existing analytical results to establish the validity of this approach.