Introduction

Abstract

In almost all quantitative investigations of realistic problems in engineering and applied science, it is found that the geometry of the region of interest is far too irregular for analytical solutions to be feasible. Therefore, some form of numerical solution becomes necessary. In this respect, the advent of high speed digital computers has led to the emergence of many numerical techniques, and with rapidly growing computing capabilities, numerous problems of real engineering interest can now be solved with relative ease. Two very common numerical techniques involve extensive subdivision of the region, either by grids of lines parallel to the coordinate axes, as in the finite difference method, or by lines forming more arbitrarily shaped subdomains as in the finite element method.