This thorough yet understandable introduction to the boundary element
method presents an attractive alternative to the finite element method.
It not only explains the theory but also presents the implementation of
the theory into computer code, the code in FORTRAN 95 can be freely
downloaded. The book also addresses the issue of efficiently using
parallel processing hardware in order to considerably speed up the
computations for large systems. The applications range from problems of
heat and fluid flow to static and dynamic elasto-plastic problems in
continuum mechanics. After each chapter several exercises are shown,
which makes the book suitable as teaching material in a class on the
BEM. In addition, the book includes several applications of the method
to industrial problems, that show the advantage over other methods.