This book covers the essential topics for a second-level course in strength of materials or mechanics of materials, with an emphasis on techniques that are useful for mechanical design. Design typically involves an initial conceptual stage during which many options are considered. At this stage, quick approximate analytical methods are crucial in determining which of the initial proposals are feasible. The ideal would be to get within 30% with a few lines of calculation. The designer also needs to develop experience as to the kinds of features in the geometry or the loading that are most likely to lead to critical conditions.
With this in mind, the author tries wherever possible to give a physical and even an intuitive interpretation to the problems under investigation. For example, students are encouraged to estimate the location of weak and strong bending axes and the resulting neutral axis of bending before performing calculations, and the author discusses ways of getting good accuracy with a simple one degree of freedom Rayleigh-Ritz approximation. Students are also encouraged to develop a feeling for structural deformation by performing simple experiments in their outside environment, such as estimating the radius to which an initially straight bar can be bent without producing permanent deformation, or convincing themselves of the dramatic difference between torsional and bending stiffness for a thin-walled open beam section by trying to bend and then twist a structural steel beam by hand-applied loads at one end.
In choosing dimensions for mechanical components, designers will expect to be guided by criteria of minimum weight, which with elementary calculations, generally leads to a thin-walled structure as an optimal solution. This consideration motivates the emphasis on thin-walled structures, but also demands that students be introduced to the limits imposed by structural instability. Emphasis is also placed on the effect of manufacturing errors on such highly-designed structures - for example, the effect of load misalignment on a beam with a large ratio between principal stiffness and the large magnification of initial alignment or loading errors in a strut below, but not too far below the buckling load.
Additional material can be found on http://extras.springer.com/ .
J.R.BARBER
J.R.BARBER graduated in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University in 1963 and joined British Rail, who later sponsored his research at Cambridge between 1965 and 1968 on the subject of thermal effects in braking systems. In 1969 he became Lecturer and later Reader in Solid Mechanics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1981 he moved to the University of Michigan, where he is presently Arthur F Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He is a Chartered Engineer in the U.K., Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and has engaged extensively in consulting work in the field of stress analysis for engineering design.
He is author of two books (‘Elasticity’ and ‘Intermediate Mechanics of Materials’) and over 160 articles in the fields of Elasticity, Thermoelasticity, Contact Mechanics, Tribology, Heat Conduction and Elastodynamics. He is a recipient of the Drucker Medal of ASME and the Archie Higdon DistinguishedEducator Award of ASEE. He has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Mechanics and Mathematical Problems in Engineering and is a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, the Journal of Thermal Stresses, MilleChili Journal and Acta Tribologica.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/˜jbarber/
