Fast Multipole BEM for 3-D Elastostatic Problems with Applications for Thin Structures

The fast multipole method (FMM) has been used to reduce the computing operations and memory requirements in large numerical analysis problems. In this paper, the FMM based on Taylor expansions is combined with the boundary element method (BEM) for three-dimensional elastostatic problems to solve thin plate and shell structures. The fast multipole boundary element method (FM-BEM) requires O(N) operations and memory for problems with N unknowns. The numerical results indicate that for the analysis of thin structures, the FM-BEM is much more efficient than the conventional BEM and the accuracy achieved is sufficient for engineering applications.