The content of the book is based on the lectures on the theory of elasticity, stability, and dynamics of structures. The importance of these disciplines in the preparation of young structural engineers for work in the practice cannot be overemphasized. The university training in such fundamental discipline must seek to build a strong foundation and to illustrate the application of the used methods to practical engineering problems. The solution of a structural engineering problem usually consists of three basic steps: the simplification to such a state of idealization that it can be expressed in allegorical or geometrical form, the solution of this mathematical form, and the interpretation of the results of the solution in terms of the engineering needs. By successive illustration of these three steps in the solution of each problem, the student must be led and encouraged to approach the solution of his own engineering problems in a similar way or in similar manner with a desired degree of accuracy in the final result.
The content of the book is based on the lectures on the theory of elasticity, stability, and dynamics of structures. The importance of these disciplines in the preparation of young structural engineers for work in the practice cannot be overemphasized. The university training in such fundamental discipline must seek to build a strong foundation and to illustrate the application of the used methods to practical engineering problems. The solution of a structural engineering problem usually consists of three basic steps: the simplification to such a state of idealization that it can be expressed in allegorical or geometrical form, the solution of this mathematical form, and the interpretation of the results of the solution in terms of the engineering needs. By successive illustration of these three steps in the solution of each problem, the student must be led and encouraged to approach the solution of his own engineering problems in a similar way or in similar manner with a desired degree of accuracy in the final result.
