A few decades ago, the advent of high-speed electronic digital computers gave tremendous impetus to all
numerical methods for solving engineering problems, and made it possible to solve with good accuracy
many problems which previously could only be solved approximately. Finite difference methods, applied
manually, gave way to finite element methods, which are still one of the most versatile and widely used,
particularly in structural and solid mechanics. In thermofluids, methods of the finite volume type tend
to be preferred.
Slower to develop have been boundary element methods, based on boundary integral equations. Initial
development was largely in the hands of mathematicians, as the underlying mathematics are relatively