Direct and indirect boundary element methods for solving the heat conduction problem

The boundary element method is used to solve the stationary heat conduction problem as a Dirichlet, a Neumann or as a mixed boundary value problem. Using singularities which are interpreted physically, a number of Fredholm integral equations of the first or second kind is derived by the indirect method. With the aid of Green's third identity and Kupradze's functional equation further direct integral equations are obtained for the given problem. Finally a numerical method is described for solving the integral equations using Hermitian polynomials for the boundary elements and constant, linear, quadratic or cubic polynomials for the unknown functions.