Influence Function Approach : Selected Topics of Structural Mechanics

This text represents the first ever attempt to include in book format a number of standard problems from structural mechanics. It is innovative in treating each problem by means of a single mathematical approach (the influence function method). The material in the book presumes that the reader's background is equally solid in undergraduate mathematics and mechanics. The book covers only a limited number of topics from the undergraduate/graduate course on structural mechanics and as such is intended as a supplementary, rather than a primary, text. It can also be used in other core courses in the mechanical/civil engineering curriculum, as well as in the applied or industrial mathematics curriculum. It can even be adapted as a graduate text for a course on computational mechanics, where a student could use a strong mathematical background in modelling and solving actual problems from mechanics. Engineers involved in the structural design industry will also find the book useful.