Isogeometric symmetric FE-BE coupling method for acoustic-structural interaction

The concept of isogeometric analysis, where functions that are used to describe geometry in CAD software are used to approximate the unknown fields in numerical simulations, has received great attention in recent years. The method has the potential to have profound impact on engineering design, since the task of meshing, which in some cases can add significant overhead, has been circumvented. Much of the research effort has been focused on finite element implementations of the isogeometric concept, but at present, little has been seen on the application to the Boundary Element Method. The current paper proposes an Isogeometric Boundary Element Method (BEM), which we term IGABEM, applied to two-dimensional elastostatic problems using Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS). We find it is a natural fit with the isogeometric concept since both the NURBS approximation and BEM deal with quantities entirely on the boundary. The method is verified against analytical solutions where it is seen that superior accuracies are achieved over a conventional quadratic isoparametric BEM implementation.

An isogeometric boundary element method is applied to simulate wave scattering problems governed by the Helmholtz equation. The NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) widely used in the CAD (computer aided design) field is applied to represent the geometric model and approximate physical field variables. The Burton-Miller formulation is used to overcome the fictitious frequency problem when using a single Helmholtz boundary integral equation for exterior boundary-value problems. The singular integrals existing in Burton-Miller formulation are evaluated directly and accurately using Hadamard’s finite part integration. Fast multipole method is applied to accelerate the solution of the system of equations. It is demonstrated that the isogeometric boundary element method based on NURBS performs better than the conventional approach based on Lagrange basis functions in terms of accuracy, and the use of the fast multipole method both retains the accuracy for isogeometric boundary element method and reduces the computational cost.

This paper explores an isogeometric boundary element method (IGA-BEM) for sloshing problems in cylindrical tanks with single and multiply connected domains. Instead of the Lagrange basis functions used in the standard BEM, the nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) basis functions are introduced to approximate the geometries of the problem boundaries and the unknown variables. Compared with the Lagrange basis functions, NURBS basis functions can accurately reconstruct the geometric boundary of analysis domain with almost no error, and all the data information for NURBS basis functions can be directly obtained from the computer-aided design (cad) or computer-aided engineering (cae) commercial software, which implies the modeling process of IGA-BEM is more simple than that of the standard BEM. NURBS makes it possible for the IGA-BEM to realize the seamless connection between cad and cae software with relative higher calculation accuracy than the standard BEM. Based on the weighted residual method as well as the divergence theorem, the IGA-BEM is developed for the single and multiply connected domains, whose boundaries are separately defined in the parameter space by different knot vectors. The natural sloshing frequencies of the liquid sloshing in a circular cylindrical tank with a coaxial or an off-center circular pipe, an elliptical cylindrical tank with an elliptical pipe, a circular cylindrical tank with multiple pipes are estimated with the introduced method by assuming an ideal (inviscid and incompressible) liquid, irrotational small-amplitude sloshing, and the linear free-surface condition. The comparison between the results obtained by the proposed method and those in the existing literatures shows very good agreements, which verifies the proposed model well. Meanwhile, the effects of radius ratio, liquid depth, number, and location of internal pipe (pipes) on the natural sloshing frequency and sloshing mode are analyzed carefully, and some conclusions are outlined finally.

A Shape Optimisation with the Isogeometric Boundary Element Method and Adjoint Variable Method for the Three-Dimensional Helmholtz Equation

Shape optimization by conventional and extended isogeometric boundary element method with PSO for two-dimensional Helmholtz acoustic problems

Isogeometric boundary element method for isotropic damage elastic mechanical problems

A 3D isogeometric FE-IBE coupling method for acoustic-structural interaction problems with complex coupling models

NURBS-enhanced boundary element method based on independent geometry and field approximation for 2D potential problems

We propose a gradient-based optimisation framework to design the shape of the interfaces in periodic layered structures, which can model photovoltaic devices, optical gratings, etc., according to a desired electromagnetic property. To this end, we first develop an isogeometric boundary element method (IGBEM) to analyse singly periodic boundary value problems for 2D Helmholtz equation in layered media. By nature, the IGBEM is not only numerically accurate but also suitable for the shape optimisation in comparison with the conventional boundary- and domain-type solvers. Next, we derive the shape derivative (or shape sensitivity) of the objective function in terms of the magnetic field strength or energy absorption rate on the basis of the adjoint variable method. The shape derivative can be computed by solving the primal and adjoint problems with the IGBEM. Subsequently, we map our shape optimisation problems to nonlinear programming problems in order to exploit a general-purpose software for the latter problems. After verifying our optimisation framework rigorously by comparing with the exact solutions, we demonstrate a shape optimisation of the silicon-metal interface in a model of thin-silicon photovoltaic devices: it is crucial to determine the interface so that the energy of the incident light can be confined in the silicon layer as much as possible when the thickness of the layer is unconventionally small; one micrometre in our model. The optimal shape achieved 8.6 times higher absorption rate than the reference (flat) shape. This simulation shows that the proposed framework is capable of making a fundamental contribution to analysing and designing photovoltaic devices as well as photonic and plasmonic devices that consist of singly periodic layers.

In this paper, a generalized th-order perturbation method based on the isogeometric boundary element method is proposed for the uncertainty analysis of broadband structural acoustic scattering problems. The Burton-Miller method is employed to solve the problem of non-unique solutions that may be encountered in the external acoustic field, and the th-order discretization formulation of the boundary integral equation is derived. In addition, the computation of loop subdivision surfaces and the subdivision rules are introduced. In order to confirm the effectiveness of the algorithm, the computed results are contrasted and analyzed with the results under Monte Carlo simulations (MCs) through several numerical examples.

An isogeometric approach of two dimensional acoustic design sensitivity analysis and topology optimization analysis for absorbing material distribution

We propose an efficient isogeometric boundary element method to address the coupling of heat conduction and radiation in homogeneous or inhomogeneous materials. The isogeometric boundary element method is used to construct irregular 2D models, which eliminate errors in model construction. The physical unknowns in the governing equations for heat conduction and radiation are discretized using an interpolation approximation, and the integral equations are finally solved by Newton–Raphson iteration; it is noteworthy that we use the radial integration method to convert the domain integrals to boundary integrals, and we combine the numerical schemes for heat conduction and radiation. The results of the three numerical cases show that the adopted algorithm can improve the computational accuracy and efficiency.

Seamless integration of computer-aided geometric modeling and acoustic simulation: Isogeometric boundary element methods based on Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces

The focus of this paper is the description and numerical validation of a computational method where stress analysis can be performed directly from computer-aided design data without mesh generation. The clear benefit of the approach is that no mesh needs to be generated prior to running the analysis. This is achieved by utilising the isogeometric concept whereby computer-aided design data are used to construct not only the geometry discretisation but also the displacement and traction approximations. In this manner, significant savings can be made in the engineering design and analysis process. This paper also demonstrates that, compared with a standard boundary-element method implementation using quadratic Lagrangian shape functions, superior accuracy is achieved using the present approach for the same number of degrees of freedom. It further illustrates practical applications of the method, comparing against results obtained with a standard boundary-element method and finite-element method for verification. In addition, a propeller is analysed as a sample to show the ability of the present method to handle complex three-dimensional geometries.

In the paper, the position of the boundary between burned and healthy tissue is described by the NURBS curve. The temperature field in the domain is calculated by means of the boundary element method. The influence of discretization on the temperature distribution in the burned and healthy skin tissue is analysed. Different numbers of bound- ary elements and internal cells are taken into account. In the final part of the paper the examples of computations are shown.