A high‐frequency open boundary for transient seepage analyses of semi‐infinite layers by extending the scaled boundary finite element method

A high‐frequency open boundary has been developed for the transient seepage analyses of semi‐infinite layers with a constant depth. The scaled boundary finite element equation of pore water pressure is formulated first in the frequency domain. With the eigenvalue problem, the equation can be decoupled into modal equations whose modal dynamic permeability equation can be determined. The continued fraction technique is adopted to formulate the continued fraction solution in the frequency domain. All constants in the solution are determined recursively at the high‐frequency limit. By introducing auxiliary variables and the continued fraction solution to the relationship between the prescribed seepage flow and the pore water pressure in the frequency domain, the open boundary condition is obtained. After transformed to the time domain, the open boundary condition is expressed as a system of fractional differential equations. No convolution integral is required. The accuracy of the analysis results increases with the increasing orders of continued fraction. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.