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U.S. NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON THEORETICAL AND APPLIED MECHANICS (USNC/TAM)
SIDNEY LEIBOVICH, (Chair),
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
RICHARD M. CHRISTENSEN (Vice Chair),
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA
H. NORMAN ABRAMSON (Past Chair),
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX
PHILIP G. HODGE, JR. (Secretary),
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
TED B. BELYTSCHKO,
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
DAVID B. BOGY,
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
ROBERT S. BRODKEY,
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
C.F. (TONY) CHEN,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
CONSTANTINE M. DAFERMOS,
Brown University, Providence, RI
CHARLES DALTON,
University of Houston, Houston, TX
MICHAEL E. FOURNEY,
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
DANIEL FREDERICK,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
L. BEN FREUND,
Brown University, Providence, RI
THOMAS L. GEERS,
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
JOE D. GODDARD,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
DANIEL JOSEPH,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
L. GARY LEAL,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
BRYAN R. NOTON,
Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH
J. TINSLEY ODEN,
University of Texas, Austin, TX
POL SPANOS,
Rice University, Houston, TX
MARSHALL P. TULIN,
University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
MILTON VAN DYKE,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
WILLIAM S. VORUS,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
ROBERT P. WEI,
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF THEORETICAL AND APPLIED MECHANICS (USNC/TAM EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS)
BRUNO A. BOLEY (Personal Member),
Columbia University, New York, NY
DANIEL C. DRUCKER (Bureau Member),
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
JAN ACHENBACH (Congress Committee Member),
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
ANDREAS ACRIVOS (General Assembly Member),
City College of City University of New York, New York, NY
STEPHEN H. CRANDALL (General Assembly Member),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Staff
THOMAS C. MAHONEY, Director,
Manufacturing Studies Board
DANA G. CAINES, Staff Associate
MANUFACTURING STUDIES BOARD
JAMES F. LARDNER, Chairman, Vice President,
Component Group, Deere & Company (Retired), Davenport, IA
STEVEN J. BOMBA, Vice President of Technology,
Johnson Controls, Inc., Milwaukee, WI
BRIAN E. BOYER, Vice President of Operations,
Northrup Aircraft Division, Hawthorne, CA
GARY L. COWGER, Executive Director,
Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, General Motors Corporation, Warren, MI
CHARLES P. FLETCHER, Vice President of Engineering,
Aluminum Company of America (Retired), Allison Park, PA
DAVID A. GARVIN, Professor, Business Administration,
Harvard Business School, Harvard University, Boston, MA
THOMAS G. GUNN, President,
Gunn Associates, Inc., Bryn Mawr, PA
GEORGE J. HESS, Vice President of Systems and Planning,
The Ingersoll Milling Machine Co., Rockford, IL
CHARLES W. HOOVER, JR., Professor,
Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY
RAMCHANDRAN JAIKUMAR, Professor of Business Administration,
Harvard Business School, Boston, MA
J. B. JONES, Randolph Professor Emeritus,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
DONALD KENNEDY, Educational Representative International,
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Hollywood, MD
JOE H. MIZE, Regents Professor,
School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
LAURENCE C. SEIFERT, Vice President,
Communications and Computer Products, Sourcing and Manufacturing, AT&T, Bridgewater, NJ
JOHN M. STEWART, Director,
McKinsey and Co., Inc., New York, NY
HERBERT B. VOELCKER, Charles Lake Professor of Engineering,
Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
PAUL K. WRIGHT,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The U.S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics thanks the following members of The Subcommittee on Research Directions in Mechanics for their individual commitment to and extra effort in the production of this report:
J. Tinsley Oden (Chair)
Andreas Acrivos
Ted Belytschko
Thomas Geers
Sidney Liebovich
Marshall Tulin
Milton Van Dyke
The committee also wishes to recognize those who authored the appendices and thank them for their hard work and invaluable participation.
D. Anderson, University of Texas at Arlington
H. Armen, Grumman Aircraft Systems
I. Babuska, University of Maryland
R.E. Ewing, University of Wyoming
S.J. Fenves, Carnegie Mellon University
J.E. Flaherty, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
A.F. Ghoneim, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
R. Glowinski, University of Houston
P. Haff, Duke University
A. Needleman, Brown University
A.K. Noor, University of Texas
S. Orszag, Princeton University
P.J. Rabier, University of Pittsburgh
W.C. Rheinboldt, University of Pittsburgh
O. Richmond, Alcoa Aluminum Company of America
M. Shinozuka, Princeton University
G. Turkiyyah, Carnegie Mellon University
O. Walton, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories
In addition, the committee gratefully acknowledges the contributions of many more individuals than can be conveniently listed here. Many colleagues gave helpful advice and suggested improvements to the report. Their participation in reviewing drafts of the report and offering constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
FOREWORD
This document is the first in a planned series of five reports on research directions and trends in mechanics. Besides computational mechanics, the series will cover research directions in fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, experimental mechanics, and dynamics and control. The committee will assess the state of the art for each field and bring attention to developments that will allow the United States to maintain its leadership status and technical preeminence in an increasingly fiercely competitive and politically uncertain world.
This document describes current trends and future research directions in computational mechanics, as well as the status of computational mechanics in the United States. It suggests directions for further research, particularly in areas where gaps exist in current knowledge and major advances are crucial to continued technological developments in the United States. It consists of an Executive Summary and a collection of fourteen appendices. The Executive Summary is provided for readers not familiar with the technical aspects of the subject matter. The definition of computational mechanics, its importance in developing technology, and a summary of recommendations on principal areas of research requiring attention and support over the next decade are presented in the Executive Summary. More detailed technical discussions of specific research areas are given in the appendices.
If measured in terms of impact on advances in modern technology, the subjects of mechanics and its recent offspring, computational mechanics, are among the most important areas of research and development in the industrialized world. The subject is, arguably, the key to many further developments in manufacturing, robotics, defense systems, and other fields. Computational mechanics originated in the United States, grew out of the development of electronic computation in this country, and is basic to future growth in important segments of the economy. It is a field whose welfare is often taken for granted by major federal agencies that, some critics say, are more content with promoting the development of computing machines than with the development of conceptual tools to apply the machines to meaningful problems. In the meantime, Japan and Western Europe are investing heavily in computational mechanics and are gaining prominence both in expertise and in the world market share of computational methods and software.