(NOTE: Most chapters begins with The Big Picture and Objectives and concludes with References, Internet Sites, Practice Problems, and Computer Programming Assignments sections.)

Mathematical modeling and numerical solution is today firmly established in science and engineering. Research conducted in almost all branches of scientific investigations and the design of systems in practically all disciplines of engineering can not be pursued effectively without, frequently, intensive analysis based on numerical computations.


The world we live in has been classified by the human mind, for descriptive and analysis purposes, to consist of fluids and solids, continua and molecules; and the analyses of fluids and solids at the continuum and molecular scales have traditionally been pursued separately. Fundamentally, however, there are only molecules and particles for any material that interact on the microscopic and macroscopic scales. Therefore, to unify the analysis of physical systems and to reach a deeper understanding of the behavior of nature in scientific investigations, and of the behavior of designs in engineering endeavors, a new level of analysis is necessary.

Researchers have recently identified eight critical research tasks facing the field of computational mechanics. These tasks have come about because it appears possible to reach a new level of mathematical modelling and numerical solution that will lead to a much deeper understanding of nature and to great improvements in engineering design.

The eight tasks are:

• The automatic solution of mathematical models


• Effective numerical schemes for fluid flows


• The development of an effective mesh-free numerical solution method


• The development of numerical procedures for multiphysics problems


• The development of numerical procedures for multiscale problems


• The modelling of uncertainties


• The analysis of complete life cycles of systems


• Education - teaching sound engineering and scientific judgement

Readers of Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics 2003 will be able to apply the combined experience of many of the world's leading researchers to their own research needs. Those in academic environments will gain a better insight into the needs and constraints of the industries they are involved with; those in industry will gain a competitive advantage by gaining insight into the cutting edge research being carried out by colleagues in academia.

Features

• Bridges the gap between academic researchers and practitioners in industry


• Outlines the eight main challenges facing Research and Design in Computational mechanics and offers new insights into the shifting the research agenda


• Provides a vision of how strong, basic and exciting education at university can be harmonized with life-long learning to obtain maximum value from the new powerful tools of analysis

The MIT Conferences in Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics are now established as the premier meeting place for industry and academia to come together and share ideas. Distinguished and thought provoking keynote lectures, cutting edge research results, and directions for future research are presented in over 600 contributions. The CD-Rom version enables specialized searching across complete contents.

Contributing authors present results which address eight fundamental areas for research and development.

• The automatic solution of mathematical models


• Effective numerical schemes for fluid flows


• The development of an effective mesh-free numerical solution method


• The development of numerical procedures for multiphysics problems


• The development of numerical procedures for multiscale problems


• The modelling of uncertainties


• The analysis of complete life cycles of systems


• Education - teaching sound engineering and scientific judgement