Practical Guide to Finite Elements: A Solid Mechanics Approach

Engineers excel at solving problems in the course of their work, which can range from building roads and bridges to manufacturing steam boilers to designing new microchips. One of the more powerful tools developed this century, greatly expanded with the development of computers, is finite element analysis, an approximation technique used to solve problems in various engineering disciplines such as static and dynamic analysis of complex structures (aircraft, bridges, buildings, dams, machines, and ships), heat transfer, and fluid mechanics. Aircraft companies were the first to use the method extensively; today, all major builders, manufacturers, and designers employ the method. This text focuses on applications in solid mechanics. To obtain a solution using finite element analysis, the engineer must make simplifying assumptions, reducing the problem to one that can be solved. A typical problem is to figure the maximum stress allowable in a structure subjected to external forces.The book is well organized, with seven chapters. The first chapter contains a substantial overview of the basic concepts required to apply finite element analysis. The next five chapters cover specific aspects of the method. The last chapter gives advice on the practical application of this method, including common pitfalls to avoid. Each chapter begins with an overview and concludes with a good, current list of references and resources for more in-depth exploration. There are three appendices providing more details on some of the mathematics and an index.The Practical Guide to Finite Elements is more a textbook than a reference book, with a very narrow intended audience of "engineering professionals who either currently have, or at one time had, a good understanding of the requisite body of knowledge," specifically professional engineers just a few years out of school faced with the need to update their skills in this area. Recommended for the circulating collections in academic science and technology libraries or special libraries with a focus in engineering applications.Reviewer: Donna Cromer, Coordinator of Reference Services and Selector for Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico Centennial Science and Engineering Library, dcromer@unm.eduCopyright 2000 YBP Library Services