A fourth order finite difference method applied to elastodynamics: Finite element and boundary element formulations

This work presents a direct integration scheme, based on a fourth order finite difference approach, for elastodynamics. The proposed scheme was chosen as an alternative for attenuating the errors due to the use of the central difference method, mainly when the time-step length approaches the critical time-step. In addition to eliminating the spurious numerical oscillations, the fourth order finite difference scheme keeps the advantages of the central difference method: reduced computer storage and no requirement of factorisation of the effective stiffness matrix in the step-by-step solution. A study concerning the stability of the fourth order finite difference scheme is presented. The Finite Element Method and the Boundary Element Method are employed to solve elastodynamic problems. In order to verify the accuracy of the proposed scheme, two examples are presented and discussed at the end of this work.