Basic Structures of Reality

A good grasp of the theory of structures - the theoretical 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. The basic structural equations have been known for at least 150 years, but modern plastic theory has opened up a fundamentally new way of advancing structural theory. Paradoxically, the powerful plastic theorems can be used to examine 'classic' elastic design activity, and strong mathematical relationships exist between these two approaches. Some of the techniques used in this book may be familiar to the reader, and some may not, but each of the topics examined will give the structural engineer valuable insight into the basis of the subject. This lucid volume provid

A good grasp of the theory of structures - the theoretical 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. The basic structural equations have been known for at least 150 years, but modern plastic theory has opened up a fundamentally new way of advancing structural theory. Paradoxically, the powerful plastic theorems can be used to examine 'classic' elastic design activity, and strong mathematical relationships exist between these two approaches. Some of the techniques used in this book may be familiar to the reader, and some may not, but each of the topics examined will give the structural engineer valuable insight into the basis of the subject. This lucid volume provid

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 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. The emphasis throughout is on the derivation and application of the structural equations, rather than on details of their solution (nowadays best done by computer), and the numerical examples are deliberately kept simple.