The institute is involved in Collaborative Research Centres, Research Training Groups and the Research Center Computational Engineering.

Research activities at FNB can be considered as application-oriented and aim at the development of numerical methods for simulation and optimization purposes in mechanical engineering and related engineering fields. Herein problems of fluid- and structural mechanics as well as heat conduction phenomena are of particular relevance, whereas questions refering to realistic modelling are considered as well.

Numerical applications for multiphysic, i.e. the interconnection of two or more field sizes into one coupled problem formulation, stand at the center of many actual research projects of FNB.

Above mentioned research fields are reflected in the curricula of the different lectures offered by FNB. Here, practically relevant basic principles of the finite element and finite volume methods for the numerical solution of solid and fluid mechanical problems are considered, and implementation issues are covered in lecture related tutorials. The topics of BSc and MSc theses supervised by the institute contain the further development and application of existing simulation tools or focus on in-depth implementation tasks.

The Dynamics and Vibrations Group is part of the Institute of Numerical Methods in Mechanical Engineering.

The institute FNB originates from the former institute for Lightweight Constructions, formerly directed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. J. Wissmann. Already back then numerical methods were the emphasis of the institute's research and education.

With the appointment of Prof. Dr. rer. nat. M. Schäfer at April 1th 1996 the institute was founded in its present form. Since then the field of numerical simulation plays a vital in the curriculum of BSc and MSc students of mechanical engineering at TU Darmstadt.