Examples in Structural Analysis

This third edition of Examples in Structural Analysis uses a step-by-step approach and provides an extensive collection of fully worked and graded examples for a wide variety of structural analysis problems. It presents detailed information on the methods of solutions to problems and the results obtained. Also given within the text is a summary of each of the principal analysis techniques inherent in the design process and where appropriate, an explanation of the mathematical models used.

The text emphasises that software should only be used if designers have appropriate knowledge and understanding of the mathematical assumptions, modelling and limitations inherent in the programs they use. It establishes the use of hand-methods for obtaining approximate solutions during preliminary design and an independent check on the answers obtained from computer analysis.

What is New in the Third Edition:

A new chapter covers the analysis and design of cables and arches subjected to concentrated loads and uniformly distributed loads. For cables without or with simply supported pinned trusses or steel girder beams through equally spaced hangers, tension forces, support reactions, sags and slopes in cables are determined. For two-pinned or three-pinned arches with parabolic, arched and semi-circular shapes, axial forces, radial shear forces and bending moments at various sections of arches are determined. An existing chapter has been expanded to the construction and use of influence lines for pin-pointed trusses and lattice girders. Also, the chapter Direct Stiffness Methods has been revisited and amended.

Dr William M. C. McKenzie is also the author of six design textbooks relating to both the British Standards and the structural Eurocodes for structural design of various construction materials and members, e.g. steel, concrete, masonry and timber, and one structural analysis textbook. As a member of the Institute of Physics, he was both a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Physicist and had been largely involved in teaching, research and consultancy for more than 40 years.

Professor Binsheng Zhang has been working at Tongji University and three Scottish universities since completing PhD in 1987 and his teaching, research and consultancy interests include design, analysis and modelling of concrete, timber and steel structures, construction materials technology, dynamic performance of structures, and tests on mechanical properties and structural performances of construction materials and members under various loading and extreme environmental conditions. He has published 3 textbooks and over 100 technical papers.