Singularity extraction technique for integral equation methods with higher order basis functions on plane triangles and tetrahedra

A numerical solution of integral equations typically requires calculation of integrals with singular kernels. The integration of singular terms can be considered either by purely numerical techniques, e.g. Duffy's method, polar co-ordinate transformation, or by singularity extraction. In the latter method the extracted singular integral is calculated in closed form and the remaining integral is calculated numerically. This method has been well established for linear and constant shape functions. In this paper we extend the method for polynomial shape functions of arbitrary order. We present recursive formulas by which we can extract any number of terms from the singular kernel defined by the fundamental solution of the Helmholtz equation, or its gradient, and integrate the extracted terms times a polynomial shape function in closed form over plane triangles or tetrahedra. The presented formulas generalize the singularity extraction technique for surface and volume integral equation methods with high-order basis functions. Numerical experiments show that the developed method leads to a more accurate and robust integration scheme, and in many cases also a faster method than, for example, Duffy's transformation. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.