“…The reader is referred to the text books by Bathe (1996) and Petyt (1998) for a detailed explanation of the FEM, whereas information about the BEM can be found, for example, in the work by Brebbia (1982) and Domínguez (1993). The coupling of BEM and FEM schemes has been discussed by, among others, Mustoe (1980), von Estorff & Kausel (1989, Stamos & Beskos (1995), Jones et al (1999), Elleithy et al (2001) and Andersen (2002). In the present example, a closed boundary-element (BE) domain is applied for the soil inside the bucket and an open BE domain is utilised for the remaining half-space.…”