Helmholtz Decomposition and Boundary Element Method Applied to Dynamic Linear Elastic Problems

The displacement field for three dimensional dynamic elasticity problems in the frequency domain can be decomposed into a sum of a longitudinal and a transversal part known as a Helmholtz decomposition. The Cartesian components of both the longitudinal and transverse fields satisfy scalar Helmholtz equations that can be solved using a desingularized boundary element method (BEM) framework. The curl free longitudinal and divergence free transversal conditions can also be cast as additional scalar Helmholtz equations. When compared to other BEM implementations, the current framework leads to smaller matrix dimensions and a simpler conceptual approach. The numerical implementation of this approach is benchmarked against the 3D elastic wave field generated by a rigid vibrating sphere embedded in an infinite linear elastic medium for which the analytical solution has been derived. Examples of focused 3D elastic waves generated by a vibrating bowl-shaped rigid object with convex and concave surfaces are also considered. In the static zero frequency limit, the Helmholtz decomposition becomes non-unique, and both the longitudinal and transverse components contain divergent terms that are proportional to the inverse square of the frequency. However, these divergences are equal and opposite so that their sum, that is the displacement field that reflects the physics of the problem, remains finite in the zero frequency limit.