One of the main advantages of the method is that it avoids any need for remeshing or geometric crack modelling in numerical simulation, while generating discontinuous fields along a crack and around its tip. The second major advantage of the method is that by a small increase in number of degrees of freedom, far more accurate solutions can be obtained. The method has recently been extended to nonlinear materials and other disciplines such as modelling contact and interface, simulation of inclusions and holes, moving and changing phase problems, and even to multiscale analyses.

The book is self contained, with summaries of both classical and modern computational techniques. The main chapters include a comprehensive range of numerical examples describing various features of XFEM.