A review article: isogeometric boundary element analysis in engineering applications

Isogeometric analysis (IGA) in the framework of the boundary element method (BEM) is reviewed in this paper. IGA is a fundamental tool in computational mechanics which enables integrating computer aided design (CAD) directly with analysis methods. This allows reducing the total computational time with obtaining accurate results. Coupling IGA with BEM benefits from the basic features of BEM in analysing infinite domains without defining truncation boundaries in addition to the ability of modelling only the boundary, reducing the dimensionality of the problem. The resulting model (IGABEM) can be implemented in several engineering applications. IGABEM can be enriched by the partition of unity forming the eXtended isogeometric analysis (XIBEM) to widen the computational domain. IGABEM can be also proposed to model fine geometric details utilising adaptive IGA with performing local refinement using the globally C-1-continuous basis functions.