2-DIMENSIONAL TRANSIENT WAVE-PROPAGATION PROBLEMS BY TIME-DOMAIN BEM

In this paper, an advanced formulation of time-domain Boundary Element Method (BEM) for linear elastodynamics is used to study a number of problems involving wave propagation through half-space as well as multi-layered soils. The algorithm incorporates isoparametric quadratic elements which facilitate proper modelling of problem geometry and can represent the field variables in dynamic problems very accurately, which are very often wavy in nature. Also higher order temporal variation of functions is introduced. Improved techniques are employed for the accurate evaluation of both the singular and non-singular spatial integrals. Most importantly, this formulation incorporates simpler and better behaved kernels compared to those that have appeared in the recent BEM literature by the present and other previous researchers. With all these new and efficient features the present formulation is superior to the existing ones and as such represents a very effective tool for solving 2D transient wave propagation problems, especially in infinite and semi-infinite domains where other numerical methods have considerable difficulty in producing accurate solutions. © 1990.