Theoretical advances and new foundations are reported which contribute to expanding the range of applications as well as the type of materials modelled in response to current industrial and professional requirements. The contents of the volume reflect the ability of the subject matter to evolve and the establishment of a continuously renewed community of stakeholders.As design, analysis and manufacture become more integrated, the chances are that the users of computational software will be less aware of the capabilities of the analytical techniques that are at the core of the process. This reinforces the need to retain expertise in certain specialised areas of numerical methods, such as BEM/MRM, to ensure that all new tools perform satisfactorily in the integrated process.The maturity of BEM since 1978 has resulted in a substantial number of industrial applications which demonstrate the accuracy, robustness and easy use of the technique. Their range is still being widened, taking advantage of the potentialities of the Mesh Reduction techniques in general. This volume constitutes an important reference base from which to discuss new ideas and critically compare results before developed solutions and tools are released to end professional users.
