Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Structural Mechanics

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Until you've looked over some of the more advanced solid mechanics texts such as Marsden and Hughes, Love, or Timoshenko, you won't understand the virtues of this book. Likewise, without a cursory knowledge of FEM, you understand the main thrust of this book, which is to teach the student just enough sold/structural mechanics and mathematics that they can approximate the solution using the Ritz method.

The author covers quite a bit of ground in a small amount of space: tensors, tensor calculus, kinematics, equilibrium, constitutive laws, boundary value problems, the Ritz method, beams, plates, energy methods, stability, and nonlinear solution techniques. Dr. Hjelmstad introduces these topics to the reader with lucid prose, and he always gives a physical, logical, or practical justification for the mathematical gymnastics to come. By concentrating on the big ideas, the reader does not drown an abyss of algebra. The author's clear, direct style is perhaps the most attractive feature for students new to solid mechanics, but because so much is covered in this book, the advanced student will find ideas expanded in later books but in context here.

These are the main virtues of the book - it is also the main vice, because the practical step of solving solid mechanics problems is neglected. There are a few dozen solved examples in the book and a few hundred unsolved problems for the student. Without access to someone who knows how to solve these problems, the abstractions and techniques of the book are almost impossible to grasp. It would be a crime to interrupt the flow of the book, but an appendix with solution techniques, methods, and more worked problems for each chapter would be a major improvement as the book doesn't even include answers to selected problems. I have a few other minor gripes: the index isn't nearly long enough; too much time is spent on Timoshenko beams and not enough on Bernoulli-Euler beams (especially regarding boundary conditions), and small strain linear elasticity is stressed almost exclusively.

If you're a beginning student in structural mechanics looking for something more than Mohr's Circle and know someone to assist you in solving the problems, this is an excellent choice. If you want to know the very basic foundation of the computational structural mechanics, you'll want to read this book. If you want to know how to solve these problems, then you probably need to look elsewhere.

Disregard the two negative reviewers: They should go back to the Mohr's Circle and run around it naked with their thumbs in their mouths. If you really desire to learn the stuff, this is a great book. The author has a unique perspective on teaching mechanics. It is written with flair and finesse; its playful narrative is a rarity in books written on the same topic. It serves as an excellent introduction to continuum mechanics, and finite element methods, and I believe, it fills a previously unoccupied niche-a modern and streamlined treatment of the Fundamentals of Structural Mechanics-rather gracefully.

For those who want a book for introductionary mechanics, go elsewhere. As the other reviewer said, this book is not about Mohr's Circle. This book lays a strong foundation for the study of finite element methods in solid mechanics and to other areas of numerical analysis of solid mechanics. The narrative is clear and in just enough detail to keep the student interested. Over complication of the subject matter and drag are avoided by, for instance, avoiding inclusions of simple derivations that can be performed by the reader himself, should he understand the previous chapters.

I am hope Dr.Hjelmstad admits only advanced undergrads and grad students to his course based on this book. It is sure to go way above the heads of lesser students.

This textbook was a great resource for the theory of structural mechanics, but did not have any examples to follow in the text. This made the problems at the end of each chapter difficult to associate with the theory taught.

I had Dr. Hjelmstad for structural mechanics at the UofI about 15 years ago. Although I came from a slightly different background, I found his information, teaching, and publishing exceptional. The original title for this book was "What Newton Never Knew" - I have an early version of it. If you ever have the chance to meet and talk with him, you'll be quickly taken by surprise. As an introductory course - its probably high end.

My first exposure to structural mechanics was a graduate course coupled with this book. I recently read this book cover-to-cover to review my mechanics knowledge.

This book is well written. The book begins by introducing the reader to the necessary tools for structural mechanics, such a vector and tensor operations and calculus. In this sense, the book is fully self-contained, requiring minimal prerequisites besides basic calculus and a desire to learn structural mechanics. Indicial notation is also introduced early, relaxing the notational requirements of equations later on. A reader not experience in tensors or indicial notation will find everything needed in the first chapter and will quickly realize the beauty in their use.

The book then goes on to introduce elementary concepts such as strain, stress and constitution in the framework of 3D continuum mechanics, contrary to the elementary definitions the reader may be accustomed to. With the prerequisite ideas in place, the book gets into the boundary value problem coupled with the Rtiz method, the theory of beams (Timoshenko and Euler), theory of plates, stability and buckling. All of these topics are interesting and will provide insight to a reader familiar with structural engineering.

All topics are built on previous topics and covered thoroughly. The figures are clean and enhance understanding of the material. The book is written in a very prose narrative and witty at times. This book is best appreciated with a nice glass of wine and a bean-bag chair.
The problems after each chapter are each unique and provide insight into the application of the theory introduced in each chapter. However, the correct "mindset" required to work these problems is not necessarily gained from reading each chapter. A few worked examples would provide the reader a good guide to establishing the typical procedure for solving these problems. These examples (perhaps 40 of them) would be best provided as a supplement, to avoid interrupting the flow of each chapter.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in learning about structural mechanics either for the first time or as a review. The book contains all of the required mathematics and notation required, allowing exploration into advanced topics. It is one of few books that provide a narrative to the development of theory.

This is not a typical book on mechanics of materials, and it can get heavy in the math. That said, it is probably one of the better introduction to concepts of stress and strain in continuum mechanics, and it does a good job of accurately explaining the concept of virtual work.

The second edition of this book is better than the first edition! There are lots more examples in the text and problems at the ends of the chapters. The coverage of many of the topics has been expanded. A quick read will make it clear that the book got a pretty substantial overhaul for the second edition. If you are serious about structural mechanics you will want to have this book.

The publisher, Prentice-Hall, writes that this book is student-friendly. Either they just didn't read it, or they gave it to a Post-Doc. to read. If you are looking for a Mechanics text to begin your studies in the subject, I would highly recommend against this text. You need to be very well educated in index notation, tensors, and tensor notation to be able to make sense of the many formulas within, and you might be hard-pressed to find examples of problems to guide your completion of the problems at the end of each chapter. While I was able to study mechanics in the author's class, I found that even an accompanying lecture does little to ease the burden of the student in battling the subject. Not an easy subject to learn, try this text after a course or two in advanced structural mechanics.

This book should not be considered for an introductory course to mechanics, ever. The text contains very few examples and the problems following each chapter are no easy task, even with 4 hours of lecture a week. The introduction of index noatation and tensors seemed to assume that the reader had some prior knowledge. Also, not all derivations of formulas are given, some are just thrown at your face with little explanation of how they came about.