Understanding Structural Analysis

Description

It is now the view of many experienced engineers that the newly qualified graduate will not have the opportunity that they did to develop a robust and reliable understanding of structural behaviour. The first four chapters address the development of an understanding of structural behaviour and the remainder of the text shows how that understanding may be used to develop various methods of analysis. The format of the book is unique in that the text is exactly matched by a coherent diagrammatic explanation that serves to amplify, at each stage, the structural behaviour. But without the computer many of our most impressive modern structures could not be built. This skill of understanding structural behaviour is the alphabet and grammar of an approach that will help the young engineer to arrive at an approximate analysis in order to size the structure and provide an external check on the results of the computer analysis. The risk of the misuse of computer systems is now all too evident. This is taken from the IStructE SCOSS report 614: "A new 8-storey residential concrete frame building is being constructed and several columns have been omitted from the ground and first floor level drawings. Without the columns, a 225mm thick RC slab was being asked to span up to 14 meters. Some of the missing columns were spotted by the concrete frame company's project manager." The computer software included was developed by the author and will provide a valuable aid at various stages in the book. This book is the bridge between the classical approach to the teaching of structural analysis and a design office that will rarely see the analysis of a structure by hand. 'The computer has come to stay, we must live with it and this book teaches us how to do so whilst remaining masters of the proceedings' Sir Ove Arup. Introduction to the first edition. Review: simple structural analysis - I love the simplicity of this book in its presentation. Simple hand sketches and growth in complexity. Buy this book. Review: A must-have for anyone using graphical computer structural analysis - Brohn makes no apologies for writing a book which shuns mathematical equations and instead focuses on a qualitative understanding of structural analysis (mostly in 2-dimensions). Furthermore he deals only briefly with statically determinate analysis. I think this is a sensible approach as the target audience for the book is those who already have some ability in theoretical mechanics and are moving on to using the 'black-box' tool of computerised structural analysis usually required for commercial engineering. In this situation the more important skill is an understanding of the graphical output rather than the mathematical details. The format of the book is that of PowerPoint-style printouts. Unlike most textbooks which contain endless text with some scattered equations, each page of this book features 4 sketches and 4 associated paragraphs of text to explain the drawing. This method of presentation is more intuitive for engineers who typically communicate by drawing rather than writing. The aforementioned features of this text make it a must-read for those beginning to use computer based stiffness matrix based structural analysis software with graphical outputs. The knowledge contained within this book will help combat the silly errors made by inexperienced graduates that plague the engineering professions. It is also worth mentioning that experienced practitioners will instantly realise that the software alone is worth the £40 asking price of the book (although it might be difficult for the uninitiated to get to grips with).