  Orbital-free (OF) methods promise significant speed-up of computations based
on density functional theory (DFT). In this field, the development of accurate
kinetic-energy density functionals remains an open question. In this chapter we
review the shell-correction method (SCM, commonly known as Strutinsky's
averaging method) applied originally in nuclear physics and its more recent
formulation in the context of DFT [Yannouleas and Landman, Phys. Rev. B 48,
8376 (1993)]. We demonstrate the DFT-SCM method through its earlier
applications to condensed-matter finite systems, including metal clusters,
fullerenes, and metal nanowires. The DFT-SCM incorporates quantum mechanical
interference effects and thus offers an improvement compared to the use of
Thomas-Fermi-type kinetic energy density functionals in OF-DFT.
