This textbook provides a concise, clear, and rigorous presentation of the dynamics of linear systems that delivers the necessary tools for the analysis and design of mechanical/ structural systems, regardless of their complexity. The book is written for senior undergraduate and first year graduate students as well as engineers working on the design of mechanical/structural systems subjected to dynamic actions, such as wind/earthquake engineers and mechanical engineers working on wind turbines. Professor Grigoriu's lucid presentation maximizes student understanding of the formulation and the solution of linear systems subjected to dynamic actions, and provides a clear distinction between problems of practical interest and their special cases. Based on the author's lecture notes from courses taught at Cornell University, the material is class-tested over many years and ideal as a core text for a range of classes in mechanical, civil, and geotechnical engineering, as well as for self-directed learning by practitioners in the field.

Probabilistic models are developed for directional wind speeds in hurricane, thunderstorm, and synoptic wind storms. The models, calibrated to data, are used to generate synthetic directional wind speeds over periods of arbitrary length and to assess the uncertainty in the resulting extreme wind speeds. The procedure for generating data uses MATLAB functions, called dirihurricane, bootstrapipar, and bootstrapiparits, and available on www.nist.gov/wind. The synthetic data generated by the models and MATLAB functions developed in this study provide a rational tool for constructing synthetic directional wind speed data that are statistically consistent with existing wind records. The developments in this study are needed because large sets of synthetic data are required to assess the performance of tall buildings and other structural systems under directional wind speeds.