In the present work, error indicators for the potential and elastostatic problems are used in a combined fashion to implement an adaptive meshing scheme for the solution of two-dimensional steady-state thermoelastic problems using the Boundary Element Method. These error indicators exploit in their formulation the possibility of generating two different numerical solutions from just one analysis using Hermite elements. The first solution is the standard one obtained from an analysis using Hermite elements. The second is a "reduced" solution obtained representing the field variables inside an element using some of the degrees of freedom of the Hermite element together with Lagrangian shape functions. The basic idea behind the computation of the error indicator is to compare these two solutions, on an element by element basis, to obtain an estimate of the magnitude of the error in the numerical solution corresponding to the Hermite elements. In this sense, it is assumed that the bigger the difference between these two solutions, the bigger the error in the original solution with Hermite elements. Since the thermoelastic problem in its uncoupled fashion is considered, the former approach is applied to both problems, heat conduction and thermoelastic. Since both numerical solutions for each one of these problems are obtained from just one analysis, the computational cost of the proposed error indicators is very low. ᭧

SUMMARYIn this work, a new global reanalysis technique for the e cient computation of stresses and error indicators in two-dimensional elastostatic problems is presented. In the context of the boundary element method, the global reanalysis technique can be viewed as a post-processing activity that is carried out once an analysis using Lagrangian elements has been performed. To do the reanalysis, the functional representation for the displacements is changed from Lagrangian to Hermite, introducing the nodal values of the tangential derivatives of those quantities as additional degrees of freedom. Next, assuming that the nodal values of the displacements and the tractions remain practically unchanged from the ones obtained in the analysis using Lagrangian elements, the tangent derivative boundary integral equations are collocated at each functional node in order to determine the additional degrees of freedom that were introduced. Under this scheme, a second system of equations is generated and, once it is solved, the nodal values of the tangential derivatives of the displacements are obtained. This approach gives more accurate results for the stresses at the nodes since it avoids the need to di erentiate the shape functions in order to obtain the normal strain in the tangential direction. When compared with the use of Hermite elements, the global reanalysis technique has the attraction that the user does not have to give as input data the additional information required by this type of elements. Another important feature of the proposed approach is that an e cient error indicator for the values of the stresses can also be obtained comparing the values for the stresses obtained through the use of Lagrangian elements and the global reanalysis technique.

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