Smooth Particle Applied Mechanics: The State of the Art (Advanced Series in Nonlinear Dynamics) (Advanced Series in Nonlinear Dynamics)

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in applying SPAM/SPH to problems in continuum mechanics. It is a great starting point from which to explore the expansive literature on this (relatively) new numerical technique. The style is refreshingly clear and direct. Some readers may not like the simple mathematical notion (for example notation to differentiate rank of tensors is dispensed with in favour of the rank being implied), however I myself found that the equations were quite clear in the context of the accompanying text. More of a journey than a reference, the book is littered with the beginnings of many mini, and not so mini research projects. This book takes readers through all the steps necessary for solving hard problems in continuum mechanics with smooth particle methods. Pedagogical problems clarify the generation of initial conditions, the treatment of boundary conditions, the integration of the equations of motion, and the analysis of the results. Particular attention is paid to the parallel computing necessary for large problems and to the graphic displays, including debugging software, required for the efficient completion of computational projects.The book is self-contained, with summaries of classical particle mechanics and continuum mechanics for both fluids and solids, computer languages, the stability of numerical methods, Lyapunov spectra, and message-passing parallel computing. The main difficulties faced by meshless particle methods are discussed and the means of overcoming them are illustrated with worked examples. This book takes readers through all the steps necessary for solving hard problems in continuum mechanics with smooth particle methods. Pedagogical problems clarify the generation of initial conditions, the treatment of boundary conditions, the integration of the equations of motion, and the analysis of the results. Particular attention is paid to the parallel computing necessary for large problems and to the graphic displays, including debugging software, required for the efficient completion of computational projects. The book is self-contained, with summaries of classical particle mechanic "This book takes reader through all the steps necessary for solving hard problems in continuum mechanics with smooth particle methods. Pedagogical problems clarify the generation of initial conditions, the treatment of boundary conditions, the integration of the equations of motion, and the analysis of the results. Particular attention is paid to the parallel computing necessary for large problems and to the graphic displays, including debugging software, required for the efficient completion of computational projects."--BOOK JACKET