30-01-2009, 05:11 PM
Computational mechanics is the study of solving and predicting the behavior of large scale mechanical systems in practice. It emphasizes the development of mathematical models representing physical phenomena and the application of modern computing methods to analyze. It draws on the disciplines of physics, mechanics, mathematics and computer science, and encompasses numerical methods for application to various civil engineering problems from structural to geotechnical analysis. The general scope of this work includes fundamental studies of the accuracy, stability, and efficiency of finite element methods and finite difference techniques, as well as the development of new classes of methods. The importance is not only for its utility in analysis and design, but also because it can develop valuable tools for studying the fundamental mechanisms of complex and often nonlinear phenomena important in many engineering problems. Several branches of computational mechanics can be distinguished according to the physical scale of the focus of attention.