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Application of the boundary element method to dense dispersions
Author(s) -
Durand Paul P.,
Ungar Lyle H.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.1620261108
Subject(s) - boundary element method , dispersion (optics) , boundary (topology) , conductivity , vectorization (mathematics) , point (geometry) , surface (topology) , element (criminal law) , mechanics , finite element method , materials science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , geometry , physics , optics , law , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , political science
The boundary element method (BEM) is used to find the effective conductivity of a random dispersion of disks in a second material. Small separations between inclusions give rise to difficulties not usually associated with the use of the BEM. We find that the integration point spacing on a given surface element has to be of the order of the shortest distance between disks. The spacing requirement becomes a limitation at high densities, even when the ratio of the conductivity of the disks to that of the host material is close to one. This limitation is overcome by increasing the order of the integration scheme used rather than by increasing the number of surface elements. A more conventional concern is that the surface mesh itself must be sufficiently fine to represent the temperature and flux profiles. As with all simulations of dense dispersions, periodic boundary conditions have to be used and further, because random dispersions are of interest, averages of calculations over many configurations are needed. Taking account of the above considerations we calculate the first exact results for the effective conductivity of a dispersion of cylinders at a high (0.6) density. The influence of vectorization on the performance of the code is briefly mentioned, as are other possible improvements.