Abstract:
The aim of this book is to present the fundamentals of structural analysis and to serve
as a textbook for one or more courses in the subject. The material covered by the
book can be subdivided into three parts. The first part, which includes Chapters I
through 9, deals with the analysis of simple, determinate structures. This section covers
the analysis of trusses, beams, frames, arches, and cables as well as methods for
calculating deflections and the use of influence lines for moving loads. The second part,
which includes Chapters 10 through 14, presents the classical methods of analyzing
indeterminate structures. Two force methods, the method of consistent deformation
and the method of least work, and two deformation methods, the slope-deflection
method and moment distribution, are inCluded. The last part of the book, Chapters
15 and I 6, deals with matrix analysis of structures. Both the flexibility method and the
stiffness method are presented.
The first two sections of the book, dealing with the analysis of determinate and
indeterminate structures by classical methods, are presented without recourse to matrix
algebra. It is felt that the inclusion of matrix algebra in this part of the book would
only detract from the principal objective-namely, to introduce the student to the
fundamentals of structural analysis. Once the student has mastered the basic principles
presented in the first part of the book, he or she should have no difficulty with the
concepts of matrix analysis covered in the latter part of the book. Matrix algebra is
a relatively simple and straightforward subject, which in the author's opinion does not
