I taught a short course some time ago on the eXtended Finite Element Method, and thought many people would find the notes useful.  

So I've posted them here, in .mov format (as exported with the Apple software keynote).  The advantage of this format is that, when you click on one of the .mov files, it should open a separate browser.  Clicking in the window will advance the slide. This way you see all the movies, etc, as well as the sequence as it appears when I gave the talk.  There is a way to add audio to this format as well - something I may pursue in the future.  

After the success of the course in 2005 (45 participants from 15 countries), the EPFL school of continuing education presents the second XFEM course.

I stumbled on this article in the NY Times "The Ultimate Distance Learning" (free registration required to view) about the establishment of University distance learning activities within the Second Life online community.

If you would like a copy of my lecture notes (on matrix algebra, indicial notation, vectors, tensors, vector calculus, groups, curvilinear coordinates and calculus of variations) they are available at

Using concepts of hierarchical multi-scale modeling, we report development of a mesoscopic model for single wall carbon nanotubes with parameters completely derived from full atomistic simulations. The parameters in the mesoscopic model are fit to reproduce elastic, fracture and adhesion properties of carbon nanotubes, in this article demonstrated for (5,5) carbon nanotubes. The mesoscale model enables one to model the dynamics of systems with hundreds of ultra-long carbon nanotubes over time scales approaching microseconds.

1. Introductory

Recently, there has been some active discussion on topics like:
-- Open-source textbooks
-- Comparing lecture notes
-- Unification of mechanics
-- Wikipedia and Citizendium

Most visitors/users of iMehanica will be aware of Wikipedia. Well, there is a new project of this kind underway. To quote from its "mission statement":

The Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a "citizens' compendium of everything," is an experimental new wiki project. The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on that model by adding “gentle expert oversight” and requiring contributors to use their real names.

Since iMechanica went official on 9 September 2006, its growth has always been accelerating. As of 22 February 2007, the total number of hits on iMechanica reaches 1,000,000+, iMechanica has 1252 registered users, 908 posts and 1308 comments.

Lecture note of fracture mechanics of thin films and multilayers given at the Technical University of Denmark.