Prof. Gen-Hua SHI, the inventor of the numerical manifold method (NMM) in the field of rock mechanics, made an online academic lecture on “I love FEM: To be an expert of computation, not a slave of computation software” on April 21 at the invitation of the Department of Geotechnical Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) and the Intelligence Base for Smart Construction and Safety of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering. The lecture was hosted by ZHANG Yingbin, professor of the Department of Geotechnical Engineering, and attended by more than 3,000 experts, scholars, teachers, and students, including professor ZHENG Hong from Beijing University of Technology, professor TANG Chun’an from Dalian University of Technology and professor ZHANG Guoxin from China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research.

Prof. Gen-Hua SHI mainly introduced the development of engineering computation in his lecture. As a witness and participant in the emergence and development of numerical computation methods, prof. Shi introduced in detail the formation of the methods and their development, such as the emergence and improvement of finite element methods, the introduction of finite elements to China and the development, the questioning of the convergence of finite elements and the corresponding deduction, the applications, and limitations of finite elements in practical engineering, the contribution of finite elements to mathematics from mesh to cover, from continuity to discontinuity. In addition, Prof. Shi reviewed the boom of the international numerical methods since the middle and late 20th century and shared the great contributions made by Chinese researchers in the process of numerical methods development, including academician FENG Kang, an oriental scholar acknowledged by Clough, the founder of finite elements; academician ZHANG Youqi, Doctor of Zienkiewicz; Professor ZHENG Hong who contributed a great deal to the plate element development of Zienkiewicz; Professor CHEN Guangqi who proposed the higher-order manifold element; ZHANG Guoxin, Director of China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research; Professor TANG Chun’an who developed the RFPA; DONG Tiebao, the founder of the Newmark method, as well as some experts and scholars such as LIN Shaozhong, SU Haidong, ZHANG Qihua of Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute.

This lecture was also a warm-up for the 16th International Conference on Analysis of Discontinuous Deformation (ICADD16) to be held at SWJTU from November 25 to 28, 2022. This successful academic lecture not only broadened the academic horizons of teachers and students in the geotechnical field, deepened their knowledge of engineering computations, and helped them understand the contributions made by the overseas Chinese, but also provided them with new ideas for future scientific research.

The Department of Geotechnical Engineering, School of Civil Engineering,

Southwest Jiaotong University

The Intelligence Base for Smart Construction and Safety of Geotechnical and

Underground Engineering

April 21, 2022