By
K.J. Bathe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA
Description
The MIT mission - "to bring together Industry and Academia and to nurture the next generation in computational mechanics is of great importance
to reach the new level of mathematical modeling and numerical solution and to provide an exciting research environment for the next generation
in computational mechanics."
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.
This new level of mathematical modeling and numerical
solution does not merely involve the analysis of a single medium but must encompass the solution of multi-physics problems involving
fluids, solids, and their interactions, involving multi-scale phenomena from the molecular to the macroscopic scales, and must include
uncertainties in the given data and the solution results. Nature does not distinguish between fluids and solids and does not ever repeat
itself exactly.
This new level of analysis must also include, in engineering, the effective optimization of systems, and the modeling
and analysis of complete life spans of engineering products, from design to fabrication, to possibly multiple repairs, to end of service.
Audience:
For researchers and graduate students in engineering and mathematical modelling, and to practitioners and specialists in the area of computational fluid and solid mechanics.
