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Boundary Element Methods
Lecture notes
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Lothar Gaul and Matthias Fischer
Introduction
BE Formulation of Laplace's Equation
Weak formulation of the differential equation
Transformation on the boundary
Fundamental solution as weighting function
Boundary integral equation of the 2-D problem
Preparative example for the limit process
Calculation of the limit
Discretisation of the boundary
The collocation method
Example: Laplace problem of heat transfer
Numerical solution with the collocation method
Analytical solution
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Page 2 of 2
Computation of solution in the domain

Calculation of Dirichlet variable in the domain
Calculation of flux in the domain
BE formulation of Poisson's equation

Calculation of domain integrals by integration of cells
Calculation of domain integrals by transformation into a boundary integral
Calculation of the unknown boundary variables
Orthotropic constitutive behaviour in the domain

Indirect calculation of diagonal elements in
Concentrated source terms
Substructure technique
Example: Orthotropic heat transfer and subregion coupling
Fundamental solutions
Laplace equation
Fundamental solution of the 2D Laplace equation
Helmholtz equations
Fundamental solution of the 3D Helmholtz equation
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Introduction
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Introduction
This manuscript accompanies the lecture Boundary Element Methods in Statics and Dynamics. However, the
material presented on the web cannot include all the aspects that are discussed in the class.
Focus point of the manuscript is the derivation of the standard boundary element method for Laplace's equation.
Starting from the differential equation, the BEM is formulated step by step. Simple examples are calculated and
compared to analytical solutions. The handling of domain integrals in the BEM is discussed on the example of
Poisson's equation. Some advanced techniques and the derivation of selected fundamental solutions conclude
the manuscript.
The lecture covers additional important aspects of boundary elements. For example the application of the
method to elastostatics and elastodynamics as well as to acoustics. Furthermore advanced formulations such as
the Dual Reciprocity BEM and variational BEM are presented.
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Introduction Page 2 of 2
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BE Formulation of Laplace's Equation
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Boundary Element Formulation of
Laplace's Equation
Subsections

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BE Formulation of Laplace's Equation Page 2 of 2

Analytical solution

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Starting point for the boundary element formulation is the weighted residual (or weak) statement of the differential
equation. For Laplace's equation , it is given by
(1)
with a test function.
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This step corresponds in 1-D to the partial integration of the differential operator. It requires the application of
special integral theorems depending on the problem dimension. These theorems reduce domain integrals in
boundary integrals. This is different from the 1-D case where integrals reduce to scalar quantities. In the following
paragraphs the transformation on the boundary is treated for 2-D and 3-D by adopting Green's integral theorem
in the plane and in space.
The transformation of the differential operator to the boundary is done by applying Green's theorem twice to the
weighted residual statement. In index notation this reads
(2)
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The fundamental solution is the Green's function for the unbounded space and solves the differential equation
(3)
The minus sign of the Dirac distribution is introduced for convenience such that the obtained system matrices
become positive. In 2-D the fundamental solution (s.f. Appendix 9) is given by:
(4)
(5)
with the common abbreviation of the Euclidean distance . The 3-D case leads to (s.f.
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Appendix 9)
(6)
(7)
The functions and are denoted as single layer and double layer potentials, respectively. After selecting
, Eq. (2) and associated with the sifting property of the Dirac distribution lead to
(8)
where
(9)
The common notations for the field point or receiver point (marked by the vector ) and for the load point or
source point (marked by the vector ) have been used. It has to be noticed, that the definition (9) of deviates
from the physical definition of the heat flux vector
(10)
In an actual heat transfer problem, physical constants such as the heat conductivity need to be taken into
account.
Other than in the 1-D case, higher dimensional problems lead to integrals over the boundary of the domain ,
or - to be more precise - over the boundary consisting of all field points on .
By recalling all steps necessary to derive Eq. (8), one recognizes, that the weighted residual statement Eq. (1)
does not lead to an approximation. The question arises, whether an exact solution of Eq. (8) is an exact solution
of Laplace's equation as well. This seems not to be the case, since the weighted residual statement allows for
local errors in the domain but averages them to zero by domain integration. An exact solution of Eq. (8) which
fulfills the integral pointwise represents a weighting with infinitely many linearly independent test functions in the
residual statement (1). It follows that statement (1) is only fulfilled if the differential equation is satisfied
identically. Thus, the exact solution of (8) is an exact solution of the corresponding differential equation as well.
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If the load point in Eq. (8) moves on the boundary, only boundary data are present in Eq. (8). This equation is
called a boundary integral equation. Calculation of the integrals by boundary discretisation leads to algebraic
equations for solving unknown boundary data in terms of known boundary data. The singularities of fundamental
solutions requires careful analysis when the load point is accommodated on the boundary.
Subsections

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If the integral
(11)
is solved as shown, the correct result is obtained by chance but the integration 'with closed eyes' incorporates
the singularity which is improper. The singularity at becomes obvious when the integral is
considered.
If one approaches the singularity in Eq. (11) from both sides by the small quantities and , one obtains
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(12)
The result depends on and if they approach zero with different values. The choice leads to
(13)
The integrand is called strongly singular. The value of the integral calculated above is called Cauchy Principal
Value. It is denoted by
p.v. (14)
Besides strongly singular integrands, there exist weakly singular integrands. Even though they are singular, the
integral exists and is smooth at the singularity. The function is an example. At the function is
singular but the integral is continuous at according to the calculation with l'Hospital's
rule
(15)
In the direct BEM, these two types of singularity dominate. They are listed in Table 1.
Table 1: Classification of singularities
Type Property Example
Integral is finite at
1. weak singularity
singularity
Interpretation as Cauchy
2. strong singularity
Principal Value
In stress calculations and special BEM formulations such as the hybrid BEM, so called hyper singularities are
encountered (s.f. Part III).
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To locate the load point on the boundary, we first adjust the boundary such that it contains the point inside a
circle of radius according to Fig. 1
(16)
Thus the point is inside the domain and Eq. (8) is still valid.
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Figure 1: Boundary
extension by a circle
The integration along the -circle is parameterized by
(17)
(s.f. Fig. 2). Furthermore holds
(18)
Figure 2: Geometry for accommodating the load point on the

boundary
The limit value by taking Eq. (8) on the boundary can now be calculated. For we get by Eq. (4)
(19)
In the limit, the first integral is weakly singular. With Eqs (17, 18) and l'Hospital's rule, the last integral in Eq. (19)
results in a vanishing contribution
(20)
With Eq. (5), the integral leads to
(21)
The first integral in Eq. (21) is a strongly singular integral calculated by Cauchy's Principal Value. The second
integral leads to
(22)
Summarizing these results and inserting in Eq. (8) leads to the integral equation
(23)
respectively
(24)
The factor is called boundary factor and denotes the fraction of which is inside
(25)
Solving the integrals in Eq. (24) analytically is only possible for special cases. For a numerical integration the
boundary is divided in segments with the interpolation of boundary data by piecewise continuous functions such
as polynomials. This approach is called discretisation.
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Figure 3: Discretisation of the

boundary
For an approximation of the geometry, the boundary of the domain is divided in boundary elements
(Fig. 3). Every element has one or more nodes. At node of element the value of is and the
value of is . Shape functions describe the spatial distribution on the element. With nodes in element
, the shape of and are interpolated by
(26)
and
respectively. Or in matrix notation by
and (27)
where and are 1 x M row vectors and is a M x 1 column vector. The simplest shape functions are
constant and linear shape functions.
Constant shape function
Only one node exists per element, the values of and are constant throughout the element and have
the value at the node. This means and
and (28)
Figure 4: Constant element shape function and local

coordinate
Linear shape function
Figure 5: Linear interpolation between

two nodes
The values and at the nodes and of the element with length in Fig. 5 lead to
the linear interpolation
(29)
given in matrix notation
(30)
with the local coordinate . The shape functions are depicted in Fig. 6.
Figure 6: Linear shape functions
Discretisation of Eq. (24) in 2-D leads to
(31)
The nodal values and are constants and can be brought outside the integrals
(32)
If constant elements are used, the node is usually located in the middle of the perfectly flat element (s.f. Fig. 4).
Therefore, and Eq. (25) lead to
(33)
The vector is perpendicular to if load point and field point are located on the same element, and
therefore
(34)
This simplifies the calculation and makes the numerical implementation easier.
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The collocation method allows to calculate the unknown boundary data from Eq. (32). The simplest approach is
to establish a system of equations with as many unknowns as equations.
The principle of collocation means to locate the load point sequentially at all nodes of the discretisation such that
the domain variable at the load point coincides with the nodal value. Because linear and higher order
polynomial shape functions lead to nodes which belong to more than one element, it is worthwhile to introduce a
global node numbering ( ) which does not depend on the element.
If the load point is located on the first global node the first equation of the system reads
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(35)
The notation means the sum of integrals contributed from those elements which contain the global
node, where is the corresponding shape function. The Eq. (35) is given in matrix notation by
(36)
where ( ) denotes the element which contains the boundary term .
By collocating the load point with the nodes to the additional equations of the system (37) are obtained
(37)
and read in matrix notation
(38)
The diagonal elements of the matrices and contain singular integrals because the distance
vanishes at the nodes. All other matrix elements contain regular integrals. Since both vectors and in
Eq. (38) contain known as well as unknown boundary data, it is necessary to rewrite the equations with all
unknowns appearing in a vector on one side
(39)
A systematic way of doing this and solving the system of equations is demonstrated with a simple example which
can be calculated by hand.
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Now, Laplace's equation of heat transfer is considered in a 2-D rectangular domain with aspect ratio 1:2 as
depicted in Fig. 7. At the horizontal boundary lines, the temperatures are prescribed. At the vertical
boundary lines the heat flux is given.
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Figure 7: Example: Heat transfer in

rectangular domain
The remaining boundary values , and , are unknown for a discretisation with four elements. The
numerical results are afterwards compared to the analytical solution.
Subsections

Analytical solution
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For simplicity, constant elements are chosen in the example (i.e. , , . Each element has
only one node located in the middle. If Eq. (32) is written for the load point , one obtains
(40)
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Four equations for the four unknown boundary values are obtained if takes the values 1 to 4 and is located
at the four nodes sequentially. The elements of the matrices are the integrals in Eq. (40) for different values of
and . In matrix notation these equations are
(41)
Calculation of matrix elements and : ,
Figure 8: Calculation of matrix elements

and
Fig. 8 shows:
Inserting leads to
(42)
and
(43)
Spatial isotropy of the problem at hand leads to
and (44)
These symmetries do not hold in general for BEM.
and : ,
Figure 9: Calculation of matrix

elements and
Fig. 9 shows:
Inserting leads to
(45)
and
(46)
Spatial isotropy leads to
and (47)
and : and
The geometry for calculating and is obtained the same way
Inserting leads to
(48)
and
(49)
and by virtue of symmetry
and (50)
and : and
The geometry for calculating and is obtained the same way
Inserting leads to
(51)
and
(52)
and by virtue of symmetry
and (53)
Diagonal terms:
According to Eq. (34) the main diagonal of matrix vanishes
(54)
For one obtains
And by inserting
(55)
The integrand in Eq. (55) is weakly singular, but the integral exists. With (s.f. Eq. (15))
(56)
is obtained and because of symmetry
(57)
holds. The same way follows
(58)
and
(59)
Assembling and solving the system of equations
Rewriting of Eq. (41) in index notation and summation of the terms leads to
(60)
Plugging the matrix elements and the known boundary data leads to
(61)
and after rewriting the equations with all unknown boundary data appearing on the left side
(62)
Solving the equations leads to
(63)
In terms of physics, the flux has to be multiplied by in order to obtain the heat flux (s.f. Eq. (8) and
Eq. (10)). After multiplication the nodal value is positive and is negative. This means that the heat flux
through element 1 has the direction of the outward normal vector and the heat flux through element 3 has the
direction opposite to the outward normal vector.
After having used the crudest form of discretisation, a finer boundary mesh with six constant elements of length 1
is used. This discretisation still allows the calculation by hand. The matrix entries are calculated as shown for the
four element mesh. The system of equations is obtained as
(64)
Rearranging of known and unknown nodal data in the equations and solving the system of equations leads to the
solution
(65)
where the nodes 1 and 4 of the six element discretisation coincide with the nodes 1 and 3 of the four element
discretisation.
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Analytical solution
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Analytical solution
The 2-D Laplacian is the field equation of the heat flux problem
(66)
The flux in direction vanishes on the boundaries and , . On the boundaries and
the gradient of vanishes in direction. This leads to the conclusion that the seeked solution is
independent of and a trial function with unknown coefficients and depends linearly on
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(67)
Fitting the boundary conditions
(68)
leads to the constants
and (69)
The analytical solution is thus given by
and (70)
The comparison between analytical and numerical solution shows, that for the Dirichlet variable even a coarse
discretisation leads to good accuracy. The larger error of the Neumann variable for the four element
discretisation can be explained by the fact that the differentiated quantity requires finer discretisation because
integration smoothes while differentiation creates roughness. The finer discretisation by six elements already
shows a considerable improvement of accuracy.
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The solution of unknown data in the domain can only be obtained after the data on the boundary have been
calculated. The load point is placed where the domain data shall be calculated. Integration of Eq. (32) along
the boundary with a vector connecting each boundary point with the interior load point gives the value of the
field variables. The boundary factor is chosen according to Eq. (25). The boundary data is completely
known and consist of given boundary conditions and the values that were calculated using the collocation
method.
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The calculation of in the domain is demonstrated on the 2-D example. Rewriting Eq. (40) for the load point in
the domain leads to
(71)
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Calculation of Dirichlet variable in the domain Page 2 of 2
with the boundary factor according to Eq. (25) and the nodal data and . For the solution of the
domain variable all boundary integrals need to be evaluated.
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For the calculation of the flux, it is necessary to calculate the gradient of at the load point . This
leads to both flux coordinates
and (72)
With a matrix notation of scalar products, Eq. (71) leads to
(73)
and
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(74)
Exchanging differentiation and integration, the derivatives with respect to are obtained as
(75)
and
(76)
The derivatives of the matrix entries of and with respect to are
(77)
and
(78)
After this, the corresponding integrals need to be solved and lead to the flux at the load point in the domain.
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BE formulation of Poisson's equation
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Boundary element formulation of

Poisson's equation
Poisson's equation with a non-homogeneous term
in (79)
describes for example the local heat conduction with sources in the domain or torsion of non-circular cross
sections. The weighted residue statement
(80)
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and the inverse form with Green's theorem lead to the presence of a domain integral
(81)
With the domain integral is given in 2-D by
(82)
A mean to calculate the domain integral is to discretise the domain into integration cells and then
using subsequent numerical integrations. The cells look like a finite element mesh. However, the procedure has
an essential difference because there are no unknowns in the domain. The cells are used as integration regions
over which analytical or Gaussian quadrature is performed.
Discretisation of the boundary with elements and of the domain with cells leads to (s.f. Eq. (32))
(83)
The result is a system of equations
(84)
and after separating given boundary variables from unknown boundary variables
(85)
By adding the vectors and , the system of equations allows to calculate the vector containing the
unknown boundary variables.
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The example of Laplace's equation in a rectangular domain is now modified such that Poisson's equation (79)
holds with const. If the complete domain is taken as integration cell and the boundary is dicretised
with four constant elements, Eq. (83) leads to
(86)
with
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The integration is carried out
(87)
Symmetry results in
(88)
The result for is obtained by
(89)
Symmetry results in
(90)
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If is a harmonic function, that is, if it satisfies , the domain integral may be transformed into a
boundary integral.
After introducing a function defined by
(91)
and using Green's theorem
(92)
along with , one arrives at
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(93)
with the fundamental solution of Laplace's equation. A so called higher order fundamental solution can be
calculated from Eq. (91). With its directional derivative all terms in the boundary representation Eq. (93)
are known.
Determination of
With the 2-D fundamental solution, Eq. (91) is given by
where (94)
In polar coordinates , Eq. (94) is expressed by
(95)
If is assumed to have no dependence, Eq. (96) remains
(96)
A first integration
(97)
(98)
and a second integration lead to
(99)
The choice of results in
(100)
Determination of
The directional derivative is executed by
(101)
With Eq. (93), can be obtained from
(102)
The simple example where const leads to
(103)
The boundary integrals from to can be split into sub-integrals corresponding to each boundary element.
This means e.g. for
(104)
For an element which contains the load point as well as the field point, orthogonality leads to
(105)
The second integral leads to
(106)
and because of symmetry follows
(107)
The result for is
(108)
so that at the end is obtained as
(109)
The result for contains
(110)
The integral is now given by
(111)
and because of the problem, symmetry holds
(112)
The integral leads to
(113)
and finally
(114)
is obtained. One realizes that this result is identical with the one calculated by domain integration. The presented
approach allows to transform the domain integral onto the boundary But it has to be noticed that the approach
only applies for special functions of . For more general distributions other methods are available such as the
Multiple Reciprocity Method [#!nowak!#] which represents an extension of the approach presented in this
chapter, or the Dual Reciprocity Method [#!drm!#] with a slightly different approach.
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Inserting the results for in Eq. (85) leads to
(115)
As compared to the inhomogeneous set of equations (62), another known vector is added on the right hand side.
Solving Eq. (115) for a fixed value of leads to the unknown boundary variables. The calculation of the domain
variables proceeds analogue as shown for Laplace's equation.
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Orthotropic constitutive behaviour in the domain
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Orthotropic constitutive behaviour

in the domain
In an anisotropic domain the constitutive parameters depend on the direction. Orthotropic heat transfer, e.g. with
coordinates and in the direction of orthotropy, is associated with conduction coefficients and .
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Figure 10: Direction of orthotropy
The modified Fourier heat conduction equation in an orthotropic domain reads in index notation
(116)
where the brackets around the index exclude summation. In 2-D, this leads to
(117)
and
(118)
Eq. (116) leads to the orthotropic heat transfer equation
(119)
Stationary heat transfer along with homogeneous orthotropic constants and lead to
(120)
The associated fundamental solution is obtained from
(121)
by invoking a coordinate transformation
and (122)
such that the left hand side leads to the ordinary Laplacian operator
(123)
Theorem 2 The -distribution has the property
With this property, Eq. (123) is given by
(124)
and leads to the already known 2D fundamental solution (s.f. Eq. (4))
(125)
where
and (126)
can be transformed back to the physical space using Eq. (122). The following calculation is now handled in a
manner analogous to the case const.
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Indirect calculation of diagonal elements in
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Indirect calculation of diagonal elements in matrix

from physical considerations
Calculation of diagonal elements of matrix requires to determine the fractional boundary coefficients by
integration. Different from the coefficient for a boundary point on a constant element, the determination is more
complex for more complex elements. In the following, a simple way is discussed in which the diagonal elements
can be computed regardless of the element complexity.
The most simple solution to be described by the system matrices is a uniformly constant temperature on the
boundary. In this homogeneous case, there is no flux in the domain or on the boundary. With these boundary
conditions and an arbitrary constant , the vectors and are given by
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and (127)
Eq. (60) leads to
(128)
with the singular matrix . The sum of terms in any row of must vanish. This leads to the diagonal elements
of by the negative sum of the off diagonal elements
(129)
As the matrix entries of in Eq. (61) show, the sum of the entries in a row does as well vanish when the
boundary are determined explicitly. Both procedures lead to the same result.
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In the presence of concentrated source terms in the domain, the volume integral
(130)
can be simplified for
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Concentrated source terms Page 2 of 2
(131)
By inserting in Eq. (130):
(132)
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So far, only homogeneous domains have been treated in which the constitutive properties do not vary. Domains
with piecewise non-homogeneity are now subdivided into homogeneous separate subregions. Afterwards the
formulations of the distinct regions are coupled by a substructure technique.
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Figure 11: Substructure technique: Division of non-homogeneous

domain in piecewise homogeneous subregions
Fig. 11 illustrates homogeneous subregions 1 and 2 with different constitutive parameters. According to Eq. (84),
the formulation for subdomain 1 is
(133)
and for subdomain 2 is
(134)
Compatibility of at the interface ( compatibility)
(135)
as well as compatibility of ( compatibility)
(136)
lead to a coupled system of equations which can be solved by two methods.
Method 1
After rearranging Eq. (133) for subregion 1
(137)
and Eq. (134) for subregion 2
(138)
the coupling with and compatibility according to the constraints in Eq. (135) and Eq. (136), respectively,
leads to
(139)
No inversion is necessary for setting up the coupled equations and the system matrix is banded which is an
advantage for the numerical treatment. Another advantage is that all unknowns in the interface, and , are
obtained at once.
Method 2
Multiplication of Eq. (84) with the inverse gives
(140)
with matrix and vector .
The application to subregion 1 is
(141)
and correspondingly to subregion 2
(142)
Coupling with the constraints in Eq. (135) and Eq. (136) leads to
(143)
As compared to Eq. (139), the smaller set of equations is an advantage. But this is obtained at the cost of an
inversion of and the necessity to calculate the flux in the interface from Eq. (141) or Eq. (142) after Eq. (143)
has been solved.
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Example: Orthotropic heat transfer and subregion coupling
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Coupling of an orthotropic and

an isotropic subregion
For illustrating the methods outlined in the preceding chapters, the coupling of an orthotropic and an isotropic
subregion is treated. The matrices from the example in Chapter 2.6 for the isotropic subregion are used. Fig. 12
shows the rectangular subdomains with aspect ratio 2:1 which are discretised by 6 constant elements,
respectively. Subregion 1 is isotropic and subregion 2 is orthotropic with conduction coefficients and
.
2007/05/23
Figure 12: Example: Coupling of isotropic and orthotropic subregions
The elements of matrices and of Eq. (64) in Chapter 2.6.1 define the system of equations for subregion 1.
After rearranging, one obtains
(144)
The calculation of the system matrices for subregion 2 is demonstrated for an example of the matrix and an
element of the matrix . According to Eq. (122), new variables are introduced
and (145)
Calculation of matrix elements and ( )
Figure 13: Calculation of matrix elements H78 and G78
According to Fig. 13 the following relations hold. The variables and are replaced in the corresponding
expressions
(146)
Inserting leads to
and
(147)
The remaining elements can be calculated the same way. The following system of equations is obtained
(148)
Coupling of Eq. (144) and Eq. (148) according to either method 1 in Eq. (139) or method 2 in Eq. (143) along with
Eq. (141) or Eq. (142) leads to sets of equations from which the unknown boundary variables and the interface
variables can be solved.
The solution is given by:
(149)
Analytical solution
The field equations for the analytical solution are
(150)
where , in subregion 1 and , in subregion 2. According to the boundary and
compatibility conditions, the variables at the nodes of the discretisation are obtained as
(151)
The crude discretisation of Fig. 12 should be taken into consideration when the numerical results in Eq. (149) are
compared to the analytical results in Eq. (151). The Dirichlet data lead to very good accuracy while the
Neumann data or fluxes show reasonable approximations.
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In this section fundamental solutions are derived for potential problems. Potential problems are scalar field
problems, thus the fundamental solution consists of a scalar function relating the effect of a source term at the
load-point to its influence point . This point is usually called field-point.
Subsections
Laplace equation
Helmholtz equations
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Laplace equation
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Laplace equation
The fundamental solution of the Laplace equation is a solution of the equation
(152)
Note that is the distance between the load- and field-point. This implies that a fundamental solution
is a symmetric function
(153)
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Laplace equation Page 2 of 2
The derivation of the fundamental solution of the Laplace equation in 2D and 3D is carried out here as an
example for the general appraoch.
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For simplicity the load-point is shifted in the origin. The derivation starts out by transforming the Laplace operator
to polar coordinates
(154)
The excitation with the Dirac impulse is radial-symmetric and, since we are dealing with an infinite problem, there
are no disturbances from the boundary, it is implied that the fundamental solution is radial-symmetric, too. Thus
the last term in Eq. (154) vanishes. The Dirac impulse in polar coordinates is stated as .
Hence, a way to solve for is to integrate Eq. (154). This yields
2007/05/23
(155)
with the integration constants and . It will be shown in the next section that for Eq. (155) being a
valid solution of Eq. (152). The constant introduces the notion of a constant potential. It is arbitrary and is
generally set to zero.
Verification of the impulse condition
The validity of a fundamental solution can be verified by evaluating the impulse condition. This condition carries
out the integral over the partial differential equation over an arbitrary volume enclosing the Dirac impulse
(156)
Application of Gauss' theorem transforms the volume integral on the left to a surface integral
(157)
Since is radial-symmetric, the gradient is also a pure function of the radius. In polar coordinates this reads as
(158)
Moreover, the outward normal on a circle is defined in polar coordinates as
(159)
Choosing the surface as a circle of arbitrary radius leads to the impulse condition
(160)
Since depends only on and is constant on a specific circle , the impulse condition is reformulated as
(161)
which proves that Eq. (155) is indeed a valid fundamental solution of Eq. (152). Note that this condition also
implies the must be zero as stated before because otherwise the terms would not cancel to -1.

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In this case a transformation on spherical coordinates is carried out
(162)
Assuming radial symmetry yields
(163)
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The Dirac impulse in spherical coordinates is
(164)
since
(165)
and by equivalence
(166)
The integration of the Laplace equation yields for the 3D case
(167)
Again, the impulse condition will show that . As before is arbitrary and is set to zero for convenience.
Verification of the impulse condition
The derivation is analogous to the 2D case. The integral over the partial differential equation is transformed to
the boundary. Since the solution is radial symmetric the gradient has only a component in the radial direction.
(168)
A sphere is chosen as arbitrary enclosing surface in the 3D case. The normal vector is a unit vector in spherical
coordinates
(169)
With this the impulse condition is
(170)
Again, only depends on and thus is constant on a sphere of constant radius. It follows
(171)
As in the 2D case, this shows that must be set to zero so that fulfills this equation.
The solutions for the potential and the flux as the normal derivative of the potential in 2D and 3D are
summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: Fundamental solutions of

the Laplace equation
2D 3D
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Helmholtz equations
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Helmholtz equations
A fundamental solution for the Helmholtz equation is derived by solving
(172)
As in the case of the Laplace equation, the function is scalar.
Subsections
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Transformation on spherical coordinates and taking radial symmetry into account yields
(173)
A solution is obtained by choosing
(174)
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where the term with the function is singular for while the term with the function remains regular.
To verify the impulse condition the behavior for small is considered. A series expansion of the cosine-function
shows that the singularity behavior is , which after comparison to Eq. (167) yields
(175)
The sine-term is again a homogeneous solution and does not contribute to the Dirac impulse. Hence, this second
constant is free and is adjusted such that the ansatz in Eq. (174) fulfills the Sommerfeld condition Eq. ( ) for the
3D case.
(176)
This yields
(177)
and the complete solution is
(178)
For small the behavior is
(179)
This implies that also in 3D the fundamental solution behaves for small or like the fundamental solution of
the Laplace equation.
The flux of the 3D solution is
(180)
The solutions for the potential and the flux as the normal derivative of the potential in 2D and 3D are
summarized in Table 3.
Table 3: Fundamental solutions of the Helmholtz equation
2D 3D
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BE formulation of Poisson's equation

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Boundary Element Formulation of

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The collocation method

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Weak formulation of the differential equation

with a test function.

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Fundamental solution as weighting function

from the physical definition of the heat flux vector

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Preparative example for the limit process

Table 1: Classification of singularities

Type Property Example

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Calculation of the limit

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Calculation of the limit

The integration along the -circle is parameterized by

(s.f. Fig. 2). Furthermore holds

Figure 2: Geometry for accommodating the load point on the