It is just over thirty years since The Finite Element Method in Structural and
Continuum Mechanics was first published. This book, which was the first deaUng
with the finite element method, provided the base from which many further
developments occurred. The expanding research and field of appHcation of finite elements led
to the second edition in 1971, the third in 1977 and the fourth in 1989 and 1991. The
size of each of these volumes expanded geometrically (from 272 pages in 1967 to the
fourth edition of 1455 pages in two volumes). This was necessary to do justice to a
rapidly expanding field of professional appHcation and research. Even so, much
filtering of the contents was necessary to keep these editions within reasonable bounds.
It seems that a new edition is necessary every decade as the subject is expanding and
many important developments are continuously occurring. The present fifth edition is
indeed motivated by several important developments which have occurred in the 90s.
These include such subjects as adaptive error control, meshless and point based
methods, new approaches to fluid dynamics, etc. However, we feel it is important
not to increase further the overall size of the book and we therefore have eliminated
some redundant material.