This book presents the fundamental principles of mechanics to re-establish the equations of Discrete Mechanics. It introduces physics and thermodynamics associated to the physical modeling. The development and the complementarity of sciences lead to review today the old concepts that were the basis for the development of continuum mechanics. The differential geometry is used to review the conservation laws of mechanics. For instance, this formalism requires a different location of vector and scalar quantities in space. The equations of Discrete Mechanics form a system of equations where the Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition plays an important role.

Jean-Paul Caltagirone is Professor at the University of Bordeaux in France. He conducts research into fluid mechanics, heat transfers and porous media in which he develops original numerical methodologies to resolve equations.