Introduction to the Finite Element Method

For final year graduate and postgraduate courses in the finite element method, this book introduces the method as applied to linear, non-linear and one- and two-dimensional problems of engineering and applied sciences. It includes a step-by-step systematic approach to the formulation and analysis of differential and integral equations in variational forms. The book adopts a differential equation approach, avoiding the need for knowledge of the variational principles of solid mechanics in the development of the finite element models. The need for the weighted-integral formulation of differential equations is explained clearly, providing the student with logical reasons for the recasting of differential equations into variational form.

Dr Reddy is a Distinguished Professor and inaugural holder of the Oscar S. Wyatt Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Dr Reddy has been a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, a Research Scientist for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, and Professor of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1980, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 1980 to 1992, and now at Texas A&M University since 1992. Dr Reddy is the author of more than 300 journal papers and 14 textbooks on theoretical formulations and finite-element analysis of problems in solid and structural mechanics (plates and shells), composite materials, computational fluid dynamics, numerical heat transfer, and applied mathematics. He is the first recipient of the University of Oklahoma College of Engineering's Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research, the 1984 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the 1985 Alumni Research Award at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and the 1992 Worcester Reed Warner Medal and 1995 Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Dr Reddy is a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the ASME, the American Society of Composites (ASC), the International Association of Computational Mechanics (IACM), the U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM), the Aeronautical Society of India (ASI), and the American Society of Composite Materials. Dr Reddy serves on the editorial boards of about two-dozen journals, including Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics (ASME), International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, and International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures and serves as one of the chief editors of Internatio