A good grasp of the theory of structures--the basis by which the strength, stiffness and stability of a building can be understood--is fundamental to structural engineers and architects. Yet most modern structural analysis and design is carried out by computer, with the user isolated from the processes in action. This book provides a broad introduction to the mathematics behind a range of structural processes--to help today's structural engineers and practicing architects gain a better intuitive understanding of the subject. The basic structural equations have been known for at least 150...

This volume provides a concise, historical review of the methods of structural analysis and design--from Galileo in the seventeenth century, to the present day. Through it, students in structural engineering and professional engineers will gain a deeper understanding of the theory behind the modern software packages they use daily in structural design. This book also offers the reader a lucid examination of the process of structural analysis and how it relates to modern design. The first three chapters cover questions about the strength of materials, and how to calculate local effects. An...

A good grasp of the theory of structures--the basis by which the strength, stiffness and stability of a building can be understood--is fundamental to structural engineers and architects. Yet most modern structural analysis and design is carried out by computer, with the user isolated from the processes in action. This book provides a broad introduction to the mathematics behind a range of structural processes--to help today's structural engineers and practicing architects gain a better intuitive understanding of the subject. The basic structural equations have been known for at least 150...

This volume provides a concise, historical review of the methods of structural analysis and design--from Galileo in the seventeenth century, to the present day. Through it, students in structural engineering and professional engineers will gain a deeper understanding of the theory behind the modern software packages they use daily in structural design. This book also offers the reader a lucid examination of the process of structural analysis and how it relates to modern design. The first three chapters cover questions about the strength of materials, and how to calculate local effects. An...

Coulomb read his Essai on ‘some statical problems’ to the French Academy in 1773. It is a document of great importance in the history of engineering since it laid the foundations of the modern science of soil mechanics and also discussed three other major problems of eighteenth-century civil engineering: the bending of beams, the fracture of columns and the calculation of abutment thrusts developed by masonry arches.Professor Heyman's book makes the Essai accessible to a wide range of engineers and historians of technology. It is here reproduced in full with an annotated English...

Structures cannot be created without engineering theory, and design rules have existed from the earliest times for building Greek temples, Roman aqueducts and Gothic cathedrals — and later, for steel skyscrapers and the frames for aircraft. This book is, however, not concerned with the description of historical feats, but with the way the structural engineer sets about his business. Galileo, in the seventeenth century, was the first to introduce recognizably modern science into the calculation of structures; he determined the breaking strength of beams. In the eighteenth century...

When this volume was first published, plastic theory was the most modern method of structural analysis, and it made possible the direct design of steel frames in a way not available with only elastic methods. It is now recognized that this theory is also fundamental to structural design in materials such as reinforced concrete and aluminium. This is the first volume of a two-volume work by Professors Baker and Heyman that expounds and illustrates the methods of plastic design. Volume 1 gives the elements of the theory and covers the needs of most undergraduates and designers. A special...

This text introduces the basic equations of the theory of structures. Conventional presentations of these equations follow the ideas of elastic analysis, introduced nearly two hundred years ago. The present book is written against the background of advances made in structural theory during the last fifty years, notably by the introduction of so-called plastic theory. Tests on real structures in the twentieth century revealed that structural states predicted by elastic analysis cannot in fact be observed in practice, whereas plastic ideas can be used to give accurate estimates of strength....

Coulomb read his Essai on ‘some statical problems’ to the French Academy in 1773. It is a document of great importance in the history of engineering since it laid the foundations of the modern science of soil mechanics and also discussed three other major problems of eighteenth-century civil engineering: the bending of beams, the fracture of columns and the calculation of abutment thrusts developed by masonry arches.Professor Heyman's book makes the Essai accessible to a wide range of engineers and historians of technology. It is here reproduced in full with an annotated English...