The Inclusion-Based Boundary Element Method (iBEM)

Huiming Yin is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University, and the director of the NSF Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems at Columbia Site. His research specializes in the multiscale/physics characterization of civil engineering materials and structures with experimental, analytical, and numerical methods. His research interests are interdisciplinary and range from structures and materials to innovative construction technologies and test methods. He has taught courses in energy harvesting, solid mechanics, and composite materials at Columbia University. Dr. Gan Song obtained his Ph.D. in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University. His research interest focuses on numerical simulation of the mechanical behaviour of civil engineering materials. He develops this innovative numerical method – iBEM under the advice of Professor Yin, which is a powerful tool to characterize mechanical property of composite material containing various sizes, shapes and types of particles within affordable computational cost. The method is able to be extended to analyse fluid mechanics, potential flow, and other multi-physical problems as well. Liangliang Zhang is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University. He earned his Ph. D. in Engineering Mechanics at China Agricultural University. Before joining Columbia University in 2017, he worked as an engineer in company for two years and obtained multidisciplinary engineering experience covering innovative structural design and materials. His research interests are focus on the advanced smart materials and composite structures. Chunlin Wu, PhD from Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, specializes in the iBEM software developing. He received a BS in civil engineering from Tongji University, China in 2017, MS in engineering mechanics from Columbia University, 2018, and PhD in engineering mechanics from Columbia University in October 2021. He received the Mindlin's scholar award in Civil engineering and Engineering mechanics for his PhD studies.

• Introduction: Virtual experiments with iBEM2. Fundamental solutions: Potential flow, elastic, and Stokes flow problems3. Integrals of Green's functions and their derivatives: Eshelby's tensor for elastic inclusion problems4. The equivalent inclusion method: Inhomogeneity problems in an unbounded domain5. The iBEM formulation and implementation: Ellipsoidal inhomogeneities in a bounded domain6. The iBEM implementation with particle discretization: Polyhedral inhomogeneities7. The iBEM for potential problems: Scalar potential flows – heat conduction8. The iBEM for the Stokes flows: Incompressible vector potential9. The iBEM for time-dependent loads and material behavior: Dynamics, transient heat conduction, and viscoelasticity10. The iBEM for multiphysical problems: Advanced applications11. Recent development toward future evolution: A powerful tool for virtual experiments Appendix A - Introduction and documentation of the iBEM software package: Code structure and a case study