Hypersingular boundary integral equations and the approximation of the stress tensor

The present work deals with the application of the traction hypersingular boundary integral equation to approximate the stress tensor along the boundary, by making use of unit vectors that differ from the normal at the boundary. It is proved that special care is required in the evaluation of the free terms, in order to avoid insidious and unexpected errors. Copyright q 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.