Introduction

The Conference on Boundary Elements and Mesh Reduction Methods (BEM/MRM) is recognised as the international forum for the latest advances in these techniques and their applications in science and engineering.

The Conference, which started in 1978 continues to attract original contributions and has become the forum for their rapid dissemination throughout the international scientific community. Practically all new boundary element ideas have first appeared in the proceedings of these meetings.

Developments in boundary elements in China started in the late 70s, pioneered by the late Prof Du Qinghua of Tsinghua University in Beijing. Since then, Chinese research in the general field of Mesh Reduction Techniques, including Boundary Elements, has progressed rapidly and at an ever accelerating pace, as evidenced by the large number of papers published by the community in international journals.

The importance of the research carried out in China led to the organisation of this Conference in Dalian. The meeting aims to create a truly international forum in which researchers from other countries can interact with their Chinese colleagues, to better appreciate and discuss important new contributions.

The vitality of Boundary Element research is mainly due to its ability to evolve. This evolution has resulted in the development of a whole range of Mesh Reduction Methods, which have now developed to a point where BEM can be seen as a sub-set of them. Chinese researchers in particular have made major contributions to MRM which this Conference hopes to highlight.

It is also important to compare the different techniques used in MRM in general and BEM in particular, trying to classify them in such a way that their advantages and disadvantages are better understood by the international scientific community. Such understanding and their critical comparison will lead to the consolidation of the more reliable and versatile amongst them. The objective is to point out the way forward to apply the most promising amongst them to the solution of engineering and scientific problems, developing at the same time a suitable methodology.

By holding this Conference in China, the organiser’s wish to set the basis for a closer collaboration of scientists from other countries with their Chinese colleagues. Such cooperation will lead to new research directions and advanced collaboration at an international level.