Finiteelementmethodhasbeenthedominanttechniqueincomputationalmech- icsinthepastdecades,andithasmadesigni?cantcontributionstothedevelopments in engineering and science. Nevertheless, FEM is not well suited to problems h- ing severe mesh distortion owing to extremely large deformations of materials, encountering moving discontinuities such as crack propagation along arbitrary and complex paths, involving considerable meshings and remeshings in structural optimization problems, or having multidomain of in?uence in multiphenomena physical problems. It is impossible to completely overcome those mesh-related dif?culties by a mesh-based method. The highly structured nature of ?nite e- ment approximations imposes severe penalties in seeking the solutions of those problems. Distinguishing with ?nite element, ?nite difference, and ?nite volume methods, meshless method discretizes the continuum body only with a set of nodal points andtheapproximationisconstructedentirelyintermsofnodes.Thereisnoneedof mesh or elements in this method. It does not possess the mesh-related dif?culties and provides an approach with more ?exibility in the applications in engineering and science. The meshless method started to capture the interest of a broader community of researchers only several years ago, and now it becomes a growing and evolving ?eld. It is showing that this is a very rich area to be explored, and has great promise for many very challenging computational problems. On the one hand, great advances of meshless methods have been achieved. On the other hand, there are many aspects of meshless methods that could bene?t from improvements. A broadercommunityofresearcherscanbringdiverseskillsandbackgroundstobear on the task of improving this method.
Professor James D. Lee earned his Ph.D from Princeton University in 1971 and has been teaching and/or doing research in universities (Purdue U., West Virginia U., U. of Akron, U. of Minnesota and GWU), industry (The General Tire and Rubber Company), and US government laboratories (NIST and NASA). His research has included liquid crystals, fracture mechanics, composite materials, numerical analyses, control, robotics, metal forming process, finite element methods, meshless methods, atomistic and micro-continuum physics. He has directed eight doctoral dissertations and several master theses, and has published more than 100 technical papers including 50 referred journal articles. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Washington, DC and a member of ASME, American Academy of Mechanics, New York Academy of Science, and Sigma Xi.
Dr. Youping Chen is a senior research scientist at the School of Engineering and Applied Science of GWU. She is currently contributing to two major research centers within GWU: The Center for Intelligent Systems Research in smart materials and the FHWA/NHTSA National Crash Analysis Center in computational mechanics. She has over 13 years of experience in engineering mechanics and structural dynamics. Her research experience includes modeling and simulating high-speed railway system, thermoplastic analysis of high-speed impact, meshless methods, atomistic physics and continuum mechanics. She has been conducting advanced research at NCAC on meshless and optimization methods for structures under impact loading. Dr. Chen is currently extending the atomistic physics and continuum mechanics theory in modeling of electromechanical and smart materials. She received a M.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China in 1991 and D.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University in 2002.
Professor Azim Eskandarianwas the co-founder (in 1992) and the Director of the FHWA/NHTSA National Crash Analysis Center from 1998-2003, where he conducted extensive research in impact dynamics for crashworthiness of structures/materials. He has conducted research in optimization of structures under impact. This research required exploring meshless methods as a better alternative to non-linear explicit dynamic finite element methods due to reshaping of the structures, contact algorithms, and various complexities of impact phenomena. This research is continuing and has lead to the development of draft manuscript for the proposed book addressing the advantages and critical issues of meshless methods in Solid mechanics. Prof. Eskandarian has twenty-one years of experience in engineering R&D, six years in industry and fifteen years in academia. Dr. Eskandarian is the founding Director of the Center for Intelligent Systems Research which focuses in smart materials/systems and intelligent methods in transportation and automotive applications. He has been Principal Investigator and Co-principal Investigator of over $18.6 million of sponsored research anddirected research groups of more than fifty, including faculty, staff, and students. He has published over 100 technical journal and conference papers. He is a member of ASME, ASCE, SAE, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Pi Tau Sigma, and serves on several professional committees. Prof. Eskandarian earned his doctoral and Masters and bachleros degrees in Mechanical engineering in 1991, 1983, and 1982 from George Washington University (Washington, DC), Virginia Polytechnique Institute and State University (Blacksburg , VA) and GWU, respectively.
