Customer Reviews

Structural Analysis: A Unified Classical and Matrix Approach

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I have used this book for 6 months now as I have written my masters thesis in structural engineering and have come to really appreciate it. My fellow graduate students and I have marveled at the amazing analysis methods it contains. It is not intended to be a topic specific book, but an overview of structural analysis (hence the name). The book gives new ideas for solving problems that I have never known before. One can then research the method more in-depth if necessary. By the way, if you want a book with more than two chapters on finite element analysis (as one reviewer lamented), then buy a finite element book, but if you want a great structural analysis reference then I recommend this one.

I *had* to buy this book for a class...only to find out that our instructor stopped using it after the first month of class.

I am a graduate student, and as such consider myself to be well grounded in mechanics and structural analysis. In fact, I have taken 3 undergraduate level structural analysis classes and 1 graduate level analysis class - I found this textbook to be nearly impossible to read. It is terrible, and it makes simple concepts impossibly difficult to understand. I feel that this is the worst textbook I have ever read in my life.

If you are looking for a good book on structural analysis, go with Hibbeler's "Structural Analysis". It is an excellent reference book and I use it constantly.

Within 800 pages, the authors have tried to include everything from basic structural equilibrium to finite element method. The effect is obvious, it has touched all topics superficially without any details. It has finished structural dynamics in one chapter and finite elements in two chapters! Examples lack details and jumps steps and are too complex to comprehend. Moreover it contains numerous printing mistakes. Theories are too obscure to follow. In overall, not a good book.