Book excerpt: Since its origin in 1978, the International Conference on Boundary Element Methods has provided the recognized and established forum for innovations in boundary element research. Practically all new ideas on boundary ele ments have been presented at these conferences and the resulting papers can be found in the published books. The conference brings together the most renowned scientists and engineers working on boundary element research throughout the world. A unique feature of these meetings is that the participation of younger researchers is actively encouraged by the organizers in an effort to .bring forward to the attention of the international community an ever expanding range of new ideas. This book contains the edited version of the papers presented at the XIIIth BEM Conference held in Tulsa, Oklahoma in August of 1991. The meeting attracted a large number of participants and many excellent contributions which have been divided into nineteen different sections, i.e. Potential Prob lems; Diffusion and Convection Problems; Fluid Mechanics; Fluid Flow; Wave Propagation; Groundwater Flow; Heat Transfer; Electrical Problems; Geomechanics; Plates and Shells; Inelastic Problems; Damage Tolerance; Contact Mechanics; Industrial Applications; Design Sensitivity and Opti mization; Inverse Problems; Special Techniques; Numerical Aspects and Computational Aspects.