This work introduces an indirect Boundary Element Method (BEM) within a NURBSbased isogeometric framework for solving three-dimensional acoustic problems in the frequency domain. Developments of isogeometric boundary elements so far have focused on the direct BEM. Yet, a multitude of common problems in acoustics involves openboundary surfaces, which require a more involved, indirect, boundary element formulation. The current work presents an indirect variational BEM which makes use of NURBS shape functions. Additionally, a novel technique for coupling (strongly) non-conforming patches is introduced to allow the analysis of more complex geometries. The proposed isogeometric indirect boundary element method is verified against analytical solutions and benchmarked against the conventional polynomial-based indirect BEM. Also two open-boundary problems are studied, including analyses over wider frequency ranges, and one industrial-type, complex geometry containing multiple non-conforming patches. The proposed method is found to be not only significantly more efficient than its polynomialbased counterpart, but also very robust against strong non-conformities in the NURBS descriptions.
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