Integration of design and analysis through boundary integral equations

The direct integration of Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD) models into a numerical simulation improves the accuracy of the geometrical representation of the problem as well as the efficiency of the overall analysis process. In this work, the complementary features of isogeometric analysis and boundary integral equations are combined to obtain a coalescence of design and analysis which is based on a boundary-only discretization. Following the isogeometric concept, the functions used by CAGD are employed for the simulation. An independent field approximation is applied to obtain a more flexible and efficient formulation. In addition, a procedure is presented which allows a stable analysis of trimmed geometries and a straightforward positioning of collocation points. Several numerical examples demonstrate the characteristics and benefits of the proposed approach. In particular, the independent field approximation improves the computational efficiency and reduces the storage requirements without any loss of accuracy. The proposed methodology permits a seamless integration of the most common design models into an analysis of linear elasticity problems.