Structural Mechanics Fundamentals

Structural Mechanics Fundamentals gives you a complete and uniform treatment of the most fundamental and essential topics in structural mechanics. Presenting a traditional subject in an updated and modernized way, it merges classical topics with ones that have taken shape in more recent times, such as duality. This book is extensively based on the introductory chapters to the author’s Structural Mechanics: A Unified Approach.

Coverage includes:

• The basic topics of geometry of areas and of kinematics and statics of rigid body systems
• The mechanics of linear elastic solids―beams, plates, and three-dimensional solids―examined using a matrix approach
• The analysis of strain and stress around a material point
• The linear elastic constitutive law, with related Clapeyron’s and Betti’s theorems
• Kinematic, static, and constitutive equations
• The implication of the principle of virtual work
• The Saint Venant problem
• The theory of beam systems―statically determinate or indeterminate
• Methods of forces and energy for the examination of indeterminate beam systems

The book draws on the author’s many years of teaching experience and features a wealth of illustrations and worked examples to help explain the topics clearly yet rigorously. The book can be used as a text for senior undergraduate or graduate students in structural engineering or architecture and as a valuable reference for researchers and practicing engineers.

Professor Alberto Carpinteri has been the Chair of Structural Mechanics at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, since 1986. During this period, he has held different positions of responsibility, including head of the Department of Structural Engineering (1989-1995) and founding member and director of the Postgraduate School in Structural Engineering (1990-). He is the president of the International Congress on Fracture, ICF (2009-2013) and has been the President of the European Structural Integrity Society, ESIS (2002-2006) and the International Association of Fracture Mechanics for Concrete and Concrete Structures, IA-FraMCoS (2004-2007). He has been a member of the Congress Committee of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, IUTAM (2004-2012) and is a member of the Executive Board of the Society for Experimental Mechanics, SEM (2012-2014). Since 2012, he has been the editor-in-chief of the international journal Meccanica. Professor Carpinteri has received numerous honors and awards, among them the Robert L'Hermite Medal from RILEM (1982), the Griffith Medal from ESIS (2008), the Swedlow Memorial Lecture Award from ASTM (2011), and the Paul Paris Gold Medal from ICF (2013).

For more information, see Professor Carpinteri’s profile at Politecnico di Torino.