Applications in Geomechanics, Volume 4 (Topics in Boundary Element Research, 4, Band 4)

The first volume of this series dealt with the Basic Principles of Boundary Elements, while the second concentrated on time dependent problems and Volume three on the Computational Aspects of the method. This volume studies the applications of the method to a wide variety of geomechanics problems, most of which are ideally suited for boundary elements demonstrating the potentiality of the technique. Chapter 1 deals with the application of BEM to three dimensional elastody­ namics soil-structure interaction problems. It presents detailed formulations for rigid, massless foundations of arbitrary shape both in the frequency and time domains. The foundations are assumed to be resting on a linearly elastic, homogeneous, isotropic half-space and be subjected to externally applied loads on obliquely incident body. The chapter reviews the major advances in soil foundation interaction presents a series of numerical results and stresses the practical application of BEM, pointing out the high accuracy and efficiency of the technique, even when using coarse mesh discretizations.