"This book on an important area of applied mathematics is a compendium of the work of many pioneering authors and of research works from throughout the author's career ... It is intended to provide background for young scientists and graduate students as well as applied mathematicians and professional engineers. Some knowledge of vector calculus including the integral theorems such as Green's theorem, Stokes's theorem and divergence theorem is assumed on the part of the reader. Isotropic tensor calculus is used sparingly in some chapters. A famliarity with the Bessel functions, Legendre polynomials and hypergeometric functions is also expected" -- Back cover.