Structural Analysis

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