----- Title: ----- Advances and Applications of Meshfree and Extended Finite Element Methods ----------- Organizers: ----------- Wu, Cheng-Tang Livermore Software Technology Corporation 7374 Las Positas Road Livermore, CA 94551 Email: ctwu@lstc.com Phone: 925-245-4529 Fax: 925-449-2507 Guo, Yong Livermore Software Technology Corporation 7374 Las Positas Road Livermore, CA 94551 Email: yguo@lstc.com Phone: 925-245-4565 Fax: 925-449-2507 Wang, Hui-Ping General Motors Corporation Research & Development Center Mail Code 480-106-256 30500 Mound Road P.O. Box 9055 Warren, MI 48090 Email: hui-ping.wang@gm.com Phone: 586-986-1655 Fax: 586-986-0446 Zavattieri, Pablo Daniel General Motors Corporation Research & Development Center Mail Code 480-106-256 30500 Mound Road Warren, MI 48090 Email: pablo.zavattieri@gm.com Phone: 586-864-2451 Fax: 586-986-0446 ------------------------- Minisymposium description: ------------------------- Meshfree and extended finite element methods have undergone substantial development in the past decade and are now being applied more frequently in engineering practice. These methods have shown the flexibility in customizing approximation functions for desired accuracy or for capturing essential physics and features of the particular problems of interest. While the fundamental theories have been developed and considerable advances of the methods have been made, challenges in the improvements and robustness of the numerical solutions and their practical implementation and commericalization remain. The symposium will bring together researchers and engineers working in these fields and further advance these fields to engineering practice. Topics of interest include (but are not restricted to) the following: - Adaptive algorithms - Coupling with other numerical methods - Fracture analysis - Industrial applications - New formulations and solution techniques of meshfree and extended finite element methods - Parallel meshfree computation - Pre and Post processing