Advancing computer technology has created new opportunities for sophisticated assessment and analysis of structural performance, especially using matrix and finite element methods. This textbook employs these methods using sophisticated computational techniques through simple step-by-step processes.
It covers the fundamentals required in any approach to structural analysis, strong form, equilibrium, and compatibility and includes an introduction to virtual work principles to express equilibrium and compatibility conditions of a frame structure, making use of Tonti diagrams. It shows how to construct a master stiffness matrix using an approach based on a system without rigid body modes. It then sets out in more detail the matrix approach to structural analysis, including the construction of the master stiffness matrix.
This textbook is essential for senior undergraduates and graduate students and is also useful for consulting engineers.