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Isogeometric methods have become the latest trend in numerical simulation. Their attractiveness stems from the fact that the description of the geometry can be taken directly from CAD programs, avoiding the need for mesh generation. Since NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) functions that exhibit desirable properties such as high continuity and efficient refinement algorithms are also used for the description of the unknowns, a higher quality of results can be expected. This paper presents some results from the research project 'Fast isogeometric boundary element methods for tunneling'. The aim of the project is to implement a fast and accurate method for the simulation of underground excavations without the need for the generation and subsequent refinement of a mesh.

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Conventional numerical implementation of the boundary element method (BEM) for elasto-plastic analysis requires a domain discretization into cells. This requires more effort for the discretization of the problem and additional computational effort. A new technique is proposed here for the analysis of 2D and 3D elasto-plastic problems with the boundary element method. In this approach the domain does not need to be discretised into cells prior to the analysis. Plasticity is assumed to start from the boundary and the cells are generated from the boundary data automatically during the analysis. Using the cell generation process, elasto-plastic analysis with the BEM becomes much more user friendly and efficient than the standard approach with a pre-definition of cells. The accuracy and efficiency of the solution obtained by the new approach is verified by several numerical examples.