Advanced Strength of Materials

Four decades ago, J.P. Den Hartog, then Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote Strength of Materials, an elementary text that still enjoys great popularity in engineering schools throughout the world. Widely used as a classroom resource, it has also become a favorite reference and refresher on the subject among engineers everywhere.
This is the first paperback edition of an equally successful text by this highly respected engineer and author. Advanced Strength of Materials takes this important subject into areas of greater difficulty, masterfully bridging its elementary aspects and its most formidable advanced reaches. The book reflects Den Hartog's impressive talent for making lively, discursive and often witty presentations of his subject, and his unique ability to combine the scholarly insight of a distinguished scientist with the practical, problem-solving orientation of an experienced industrial engineer.
The concepts here explored in depth include torsion, rotating disks, membrane stresses in shells, bending of flat plates, beams on elastic foundation, the two-dimensional theory of elasticity, the energy method and buckling. The presentation is aimed at the student who has a one-semester course in elementary strength of materials. The book includes an especially thorough and valuable section of problems and answers which give both students and professionals practice in techniques and clear illustrations of applications.

J. P. Den Hartog: The Reprint Engineer
J. P. Den Hartog (1901–1989), who taught for most of his career at MIT, was one of the founders of the Dover reprint program in engineering. As the author of several books that Dover reprinted and still has in print, and as an advisor from the 1950s until just a few years before his death in 1989, Professor Den Hartog gave invaluable advice concerning books of lasting interest and importance in his field.

Not many books in engineering have a productive shelf life spanning several decades. Among the exceptions are these four books of Professor Den Hartog, which Dover reprinted and occasionally revised in later printings from 1961 through 1987: Mechanics, 1961, Strength of Materials, 1961, Mechanical Vibrations, 1985, and Advanced Strength of Materials, 1987. Still widely read and cited by authors in these areas, Den Hartog's books are a tribute to his gift for exposition and clarity.

The J. P. Den Hartog Award, established in 1987, is presented in recognition of lifetime contributions to the teaching and practice of vibration engineering.