Mechanics of Optimal Structural Design: Minimum Weight Structures

In a global climate where engineers are increasingly under pressure to make the most of limited resources, there are huge potential financial and environmental benefits to be gained by designing for minimum weight. With Mechanics of Optimal Structural Design, David Rees brings the original approach of weight optimization to the existing structural design literature, providing a methodology for attaining minimum weight of a range of structures under their working loads. He addresses the current gap in education between formal structural design teaching at undergraduate level and the practical application of this knowledge in industry, describing the analytical techniques that students need to understand before applying computational techniques that can be easy to misuse without this grounding.

• Shows engineers how to approach structural design for minimum weight in clear, concise terms
• Contains many new least-weight design techniques, taking into consideration different manners of loading and including new topics that have not previously been considered within the least-weight theme
• Considers the demands for least-weight road, air and space vehicles for the future
• Enhanced by illustrative worked examples to enlighten the theory, exercises at the end of each chapter that enable application of the theory covered, and an accompanying website with worked examples and solutions housed at www.wiley.com/go/rees (TBC)

The least-weight analyses of basic structural elements ensure a spread of interest with many applications in mechanical, civil, aircraft and automobile engineering. Consequently, this book fills the gap between the basic material taught at undergraduate level and other approaches to optimum design, for example computer simulations and the finite element method.

David Rees, Brunel University, UK, is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University. He has published four books on solid mechanics and structures Basic Engineering Plasticity (Elsevier, 2006); Mechanics of Solids and Structures (World Scientific I.C. Press, 2000); and Basic Solid Mechanics (Macmillan, 1997) as well as over 100 journal papers in the fields of plasticity, creep, fatigue, fracture and engineering design. His research covers the fields of multi-axial plasticity and creep, cyclic deformation and interactions between creep and fatigue, autofrettage and buckling of cylinders and discs and sheet metal formability.