Author(s)

R.P. Shaw

Abstract

Keynote Address A history of boundary elements R.P. Shaw Department of Civil Engineering, ABSTRACT: Boundary element methods have played an important role in the numerical solution of many engineering problems. This overview attempts to place BEM in context with other boundary methods and with it's own "before— and after— computer" history. INTRODUCTION: This is a personal view of the historical development of boundary element methods (BEM) and their relationship to boundary methods in general. My introduction to them was as a PhD student and Guggenhein Fellow at the Guggenheim Institute for Flight Structures at Columbia University in the mid-1950's. The director, Prof. H. H. Bleich, suggested to a new faculty member, Prof. M. B. Friedman, that he and I (his first PhD student) look at acoustic shock scattering by underwater structures by replacing the body by some saltus problem, i.e. surfaces of sources and sinks. There were no bou

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