Energy and Finite Element Methods in Structural Mechanics

This book is the outcome of material used in senior and graduate courses for students in civil, mechanical and aeronautical engineering. To meet the needs of this varied audience, the author have laboured to make this text as flexible as possible to use. Consequently, the book is divided into three distinct parts of approximately equal size. Part I is entitled Foundations of Solid Mechanics and Variational Methods, Part II is entitled Structural Mechanics; and Part III is entitled Finite Elements. Depending on the background of the students and the aims of the course selected portions can be used from some or all of the three parts of the text to form the basis of an individual course. The purpose of this useful book is to afford the student a sound foundation in variational calculus and energy methods before delving into finite elements. He goal is to make finite elements more understandable in terms of fundamentals and also to provide the student with the background needed to extrapolate the finite element method to areas of study other than solid mechanics. In addition, a number of approximation techniques are made available using the quadratic functional for a boundary-value problem. Finally, the authors; aim is to give students who go through the entire text a balanced and connected exposure to certain key aspects of modern structural and solid mechanics. Table Of Foundations of Solid Mechanics and Variational Theory of Linear Elasticity Introduction to the Calculus of Variations Variational Principles of Elasticity Structural Beams Torsion Classica