Introduction to Solid Mechanics

Rather than a rote 'cookbook' approach to problem-solving, this book offers a rigorous treatment of the principles behind the practices, asking students to harness their sound foundation of theory when solving problems. A wealth of examples illustrate the meaning of the theory without simply offering recipes or maps for solving similar problems.* NEW - Concise A Look Back sections - Review essential material covered in Statics, Dynamics, and Physics. * Provides students with a sense of continuity and assists them in dealing with new material that depends on earlier information. * NEW - A Look Ahead sections - Serve as a bridge to advanced courses. * Show students that the theory they are studying has relevance in later courses * NEW - Closure sections - Summarize each chapter and provide a tie to the following chapters Introduction that picks up the subject thread. * Reiterates the content of the chapter and increases students retention of the material. * NEW - Highlights sections - End each chapter with an overview of the essence of the material, without mathematical and developmental details. * Gives students a physically meaningful discussion of key concepts in an uncluttered but informed synopsis. * NEW - End-of-chapter problem sets - Are expanded to include over 300 new problems. * The new and other problems are rated in three levels of difficulty in the instructors manual. One third at the end are presented in a random order to decrease mapping tendency. * Promotes well-grounded theory in solids - Where learning progresses from fundamentals to applications with a minimum of rote memorization of recipes. * Offers students a more meaningful experience and knowledge base to bring to later mechanics-based courses and careers and will help them retain basics. * Equilibrium, constitutive laws, and compatibility - The "three pillars" of solid mechanics, are the basis of all discussions and examples. * Three pillar approach will prepare students for more advanced work where this approach is universal and, at the same time, will help students to solve problems in an organizational, rational way in the first course. * Software-generic computer problems - Focus on the nature of the solution and the interaction of variables rather than the specific functions of a given software package. * Accelerates students development of "engineering feel" by developing their insight into the nature of solutions. * Introduction to finite elements. * An introductory chapter on Finite Elements is presented at the end so that students using finite element codes in their upper class design projects can, if they wish, get some understanding of what they are doing.

Table of Contents:


 1. Fundamental Notions.


 2. Stress.


 3. Strain.


 4. Introduction to Mechanical Properties of Solids.


 5. One-Dimensional Problems.


 6. Generalized Hooke's Law and Introduction to Energy Methods.


 7. Plane Stress.


 8. Plane Strain.


 9. Failure Criteria.


10. Section Forces in Beams.


11. Stresses in Beams.


12. Deflection of Beams.


13. *Singularity Functions.


14. Torsion.


15. Three Dimensional Stress Properties at a Point.


16. Three-Dimensional Strain Relations at a Point.


17. Introduction to Elastic Stability.


18. * Energy Methods.


19. Introduction to Finite Elements.


Appendices.


Index.