The engineering design of structures and machines consists often in finding the best solution among a finite number of feasible decisions. This volume comprises problems and solution methods for discrete structural optimization. Exact, approximate and heuristic methods are presented applying deterministic and stochastic approaches.

Topology optimization is a relatively new and rapidly expanding field of structural mechanics. It deals with some of the most difficult problems of mechanical sciences but it is also of considerable practical interest, because it can achieve much greater savings than mere cross-section or shape optimization.

Kundennutzen: Die wichtigsten Grundlagen der linearen Elastizit tstheorie, der Schalen- und Plattentheorie sowie der Strukturoptimierung werden in kompakter Form dargestellt. Zahlreiche Aufgaben und L sungen helfen dem Leser den dargebotenen Stoff systematisch zu vertiefen.

How to better protection of our architectural heritage in the event of earthquakes? The vulnerability of cultural artifacts necessitates the working out of a system which takes into account the problems of architecture, engineering and seismology among others. Written by architects and engineers, this book attempts to offer answers and give guidelines for both architects and engineers working in this field.

The behaviour of steel structures and the criteria used in their design are set out in detail in this book. The book bridges the gap between the methods of analysis and the sizing of structural components. The basis of the limit state design criteria of the latest Australian code for structural steel are explained, and the reader is pointed to the relevant provisions of the code.

This volume strives to give comprehensive information about the main aspects of the behaviour and limit states of steel plated structures. In following this objective, the volume presents a complete scientific background (profiting from the fact that the authors of the individual parts of the publication have personally been very active in the corresponding fields of research for an extended period of time), but also establishes design recommendations, procedures and formulae. The significance of the volume may be seen in its challenging current concepts of the analysis of steel plated structures, encouraging progress in the field, and thereby establishing an advanced basis for a more reliable and economical design.

Our topic is irreversible or plastic deformation of structural elements composed of relatively thin ductile materials. These deformations are commonly used in sheet metal forming operations to produce lightweight parts of any particular shape. In another context, this type of plastic deformation is described as impact damage in the case of structural components involved in collision. Here we are concerned with mechanics of both static and dynamic deformation processes. The purpose is to use typical material properties and structural characteristics to calculate the deformation for certain types of load; in particular to find the final deflection and shape of the deformed structure and to illustrate how the development of this final shape depends on the constitutive model used to represent the material behavior. The major issue to be addressed is which structural and constitutive properties are important for calculating response to either static or brief but intense dynamic loads. Furthermore, how do the results of various constitutive models compare with observed behavior.

This text guides the reader through the background to the Eurocodes and explains the main differences between them and the equivalent British Standard Codes of Practice. The main part of the book covers section analysis of slabs and beams, beam-column joints, columns and walls. A complete design example is given and the book contains many worked examples, design charts and tables for easy reference. Eight appendices deal with specialized aspects of structural design in more detail. A special feature of the text is a chapter devoted to earthquake engineering with particular reference to the draft Eurocode 8 on seismic actions. It should prove of use to engineers who need to learn about the new code and how it can be used effectively in design. Practising engineers, lecturers and students should find it a clear and accessible way to find out about EC2 and to prepare for the time when it replaces the UK codes.

This volume is the first to give the mathematical background and a comprehensive survey of the old and new summation formulae resulting in an approximate value of the critical load factor of a complex problem by means of the critical load factors of subproblems by addition. The theorems and formulae are richly illustrated by examples in structural engineering.

This text explores how academics face up to radical changes in the learning environment. With the implementation of new technologies to support teaching and learning there is a need for more strategic approaches to teaching and learning. At the same time there are requirements to respond to a much more diverse student body and therfore a greater need for staff developments to help the teachers and the learners to cope with the new environments for learning.

This comprehensive textbook combines classical and matrix-based methods of structural analysis and develops them concurrently. It is widely used by civil and structural engineering lecturers and students because of its clear and thorough style and content. The text is used for undergraduate and graduate courses and serves as reference in structural engineering practice. With its six translations, the book is used internationally, independent of codes of practice and regardless of the adopted system of units. Now in its seventh edition: the introductory background material has been reworked and enhanced throughout, and particularly in early chapters, explanatory notes, new examples and problems are inserted for more clarity., along with 160 examples and 430 problems with solutions. dynamic analysis of structures, and applications to vibration and earthquake problems, are presented in new sections and in two new chapters the companion website provides an enlarged set of 16 computer programs to assist in teaching and learning linear and nonlinear structural analysis. The source code, an executable file, input example(s) and a brief manual are provided for each program.

This book presents a series of integrated computer programs in Fortran-90 for the dynamic analysis of structures, using the finite element method. Two dimensional continuum structures such as walls are covered along with skeletal structures such as rigid jointed frames and plane grids. Response to general dynamic loading of single degree freedom systems is calculated, and the author also examines multi degree of freedom systems (including earthquake analysis). Each chapter covers a different aspect of analytic theory and the corresponding program segments. It will be an essential tool for practising structural and civil engineers, whilst also being of interest to academics and postgraduate students.

This book brings together, in a concise format, the key elements of the loads produced from explosive sources, and how they interact with structures. Explosive sources include gas, high explosives, dust and nuclear materials. It presents quantitative information and design methods in a useable form without recourse to extensive mathematical analysis. The authors, Peter Smith and John Hetherington, are staff members at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham and have been instrumental in establishing an active team studying the response of structures to blast and ballistic loading.

Base isolation, passive energy dissipation and active control represent three innovative technologies for protection of structures under environmental loads. Increasingly, they are being applied to the design of new structures or to the retrofit of existing structures against wind, earthquakes and other external loads. This book, with contributions from leading researchers from Japan, Europe, and the United States, presents a balanced view of current research and world-wide development in this exciting and fast expanding field. Basic principles as well as practical design and implementational issues associated with the application of base isolation systems and passive and active control devices to civil engineering structures are carefully addressed. Examples of structural applications are presented and extensively discussed.

The chapters of this book were written by structural engineers. The approach, therefore, is not aiming toward a scientific modelling of the response but to the definition of engineering procedures for detecting and avoiding undesired phenomena. In this sense chaotic and stochastic behaviour can be tackled in a similar manner. This aspect is illustrated in Chapter 1. Chapters 2 and 3 are entirely devoted to Stochastic Dynamics and cover single-degree-of-freedom systems and impact problems, respectively. Chapter 4 provides details on the numerical tools necessary for evaluating the main indexes useful for the classification of the motion and for estimating the response probability density function. Chapter 5 gives an overview of random vibration methods for linear and nonlinear multi-degree-of-freedom systems. The randomness of the material characteristics and the relevant stochastic models ar considered in Chapter 6. Chapter 7, eventually, deals with large engineering sytems under stochastic excitation and allows for the stochastic nature of the mechanical and geometrical properties.

Slender structures, such as towers, masis, high-rise buildings and bridges, are especially prone to wind excited vibrations. The lectures show how the susceptibility of a structure to wind excited vibrations can be assessed in early stages of design, and what measures are effective for control or avoidance of vibrations. The book will be a help for all dealing with dynamic response of structures.

Modernisation, Mechanisation and Industrialisation of Concrete Structures discusses the manufacture of high quality prefabricated concrete construction components, and how that can be achieved through the application of developments in concrete technology, information modelling and best practice in design and manufacturing techniques.

This book was developed while teaching a graduate course at several universities in the United States. Europe and Israel. during the last two decades. The purpose of the book is to introduce the fundamentals and applications of optimum structural design. Much work has been done in this area recently and many studies have been published. The book is an attempt to collect together selected topics of this literature and to present them in a unified approach. It meets the need for an introductory text covering the basic concepts of modem structural optimization. A previous book by the author on this subject ("Optimum Structural Design." published by McGraw-Hill New York in 1981 and by Maruzen Tokyo in 1983). has been used extensively as a text in many universities throughout the world. The present book reflects the rapid progress and recent developments in this area. A major difficulty in studying structural optimization is that integration of concepts used in several areas. such as structural analysis. numerical optimization and engineering design. is necessary in order to solve a specific problem. To facilitate the study of these topics. the book discusses in detail alternative problem formulations. the fundamentals of different optimization methods and various considerations related to structural design. The advantages and the limitations of the presented approaches are illustrated by numerous examples.

Numerical calculations based on the finite element design method have become a standard tool for the design of many structures. In this book, the author highlights that complex numerical calculations should not be used to compensate for any lack of practical knowledge of the behaviour of a structure. This new edition up to date with the increasingly complex finite element models and nonlinear material analysis being used in the field. The book focuses on and references Eurocode 2 throughout.

State-of-the-art nonlinear computational analysis of shells, nonlinearities due to large deformations and nonlinear material behavior, alternative shell element formulations, algorithms and implementational aspects, composite and sandwich shells, local and global instabilities, optimization of shell structures and concepts of shape finding methods of free from shells. Furthermore, algorithms for the treatment of the nonlinear stability behavior of shell structures (including bifurcation and snap-through buckling) are presented in the book.

This volume strives to give complete information about the main aspect of the stability behaviour of steel structures and their members. In following this objective, the volume presents a complete scientific background (profiting from the fact that the authors of the individual parts of the publication have personally been very active in the corresponding field of research for an extended period of time now), but also establishes recommendations, procedures and formulae for practical design. The significance of the volume may be seen in its challenging current concepts of stability analysis, encouraging progress in the field and thereby establishing an advanced basis for more reliable and economical design.

A synthetic presentation of the theory of yield design is illustrated by examples such as the stability analysis of reinforced soil structures and the resistance of long fiber reinforced composite materials. The classical limit analysis theory when standard elastic perfectly plastic behaviour can be assumed yields a more precise assessment of the global bearing capacities of structures and makes optimal limit design possible. Structural optimal design is also studied with respect to eigenvalues as well as Structural Topology and Design Optimization.

This proceedings volume contains 38 papers presented at the 4th Working Conference on "Rel iability* and Optimization of Structural Systems", held at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, September 11- 13, 1991. The Working Conference was organised by the IFIP (Interna tional Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 7.5 of Technical Committee 7 and was the fourth in a series, following similar conferences held at the University of Aalborg, Den mark, May 1987, at the Imperial College, London, UK, September 1988 and at the University of California, Berkeley, California, USA, March 1990. The Working Conference was attended by 54 participants from 16 countries. The objectives of Working Group 7.5 are: * to promote modern structural systems optimization and reliability theory, * to advance international cooperation in the field of structural system optimization and reliability theory, * to stimulate research, development and application of structural system optimization and reli ability theory, * to further the dissemination and exchange of information on reliability and optimization of structural systems * to encourage education in structural system optimization and reliability theory. At present the members of the Working Group are: A. H.-S. Ang, U.S.A. M. Grimmelt, FRG G. A ugwti, Italy N. C. Lind, Canada M. J. Baker, UK H. O. Mad&en, Denmark P. Bjerager, Norway R. E. Melcher~, Australia C. A. Cornell, U.S.A. F. Mo~e~, U.S.A.