Boundary element analysis of Kirchhoff plates with direct evaluation of hypersingular integrals

The typical Boundary Element Method (BEM) for fourth-order problems, like bending of thin elastic plates, is based on two coupled boundary integral equations, one strongly singular and the other hypersingular. In this paper all singular integrals are evaluated directly, extending a general method formerly proposed for second-order problems. Actually, the direct method for the evaluation of singular integrals is completely revised and presented in an alternative way. All aspects are dealt with in detail and full generality, including the evaluation of free-term coe cients. Numerical tests and comparisons with other regularization techniques show that the direct evaluation of singular integrals is easy to implement and leads to very accurate results