Prior to the computer era, analytical methods in elasticity had already been developed and - proved up to impressive levels. Relevant mathematical techniques were extensively exploited, contributing signi?cantly to the understanding of physical phenomena. In recent decades, - merical computerized techniques have been re?ned and modernized, and have reached high levels of capabilities, standardization and automation. This trend, accompanied by convenient and high resolution graphical visualization capability, has made analytical methods less attr- tive, and the amount of effort devoted to them has become substantially smaller. Yet, with some tenacity, the tremendous advances in computerized tools have yielded various mature programs for symbolic manipulation. Such tools have revived many abandoned analytical methodologies by easing the tedious effort that was previously required, and by providing additional capab- ities to perform complex derivation processes that were once considered impractical. Generally speaking, it is well recognized that analytical solutions should be applied to re- tively simple problems, while numerical techniques may handle more complex cases. However, it is also agreed that analytical solutions provide better insight and improved understanding of the involved physical phenomena, and enable a clear representation of the role taken by each of the problem parameters. Nowadays, analytical and numerical methods are considered as c- plementary: that is, while analytical methods provide the required understanding,numerical solutions provide accuracy and the capability to deal with cases where the geometry and other characteristics impose relatively complex solutions.
Omri Rand is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He has been involved in research on theoretical modeling and analysis in the area of anisotropic elasticity for the last fifteen years, he is the author of many journal papers and conference presentations in this area. Dr. Rand has been extensively active in composite rotor blade analysis, and established many well recognized analytical and numerical approaches. He teaches graduate courses in the area of anisotropic elasticity, serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Science and Engineering of Composite Materials, as a reviewer for leading professional journals, and as a consultant to various research and development organizations.
Vladimir Rovenski is a Professor of Mathematics and a well known researcher in the area of Riemannian and computational geometry. He is a corresponding member of the Natural Science Academy of Russia, a member of the American Mathematical Society, and serves as a reviewer of Zentralblatt für Mathematik. He is the author of many journal papers and books, including Foliations on Riemannian Manifolds and Submanifolds (Birkhäuser, 1997), and Geometry of Curves and Surfaces with MAPLE (Birkhäuser, 2000). Since 1999, Dr. Rovenski is a senior scientist at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and a lecturer at Haifa University.
