PDF Analysis of Geometrically Nonlinear Structures by Robert Levy; William R. Spillers in Arts-Photography

Description

The availability of computers has; in real terms; moved forward the practice of structural engineering. Where it was once enough to have any analysis given a complex configuration; the profession today is much more demanding. How engineers should be more demanding is the subject of this book. In terms of the theory of structures; the importance of geometric nonlinearities is explained by the theorem which states that "In the presence of prestress; geometric nonlinearities are of the same order of magnitude as linear elastic effects in structures. " This theorem implies that in most cases (in all cases of incremental analysis) geometric nonlinearities should be considered. And it is well known that problems of buckling; cable nets; fabric structures; ... REQUIRE the inclusion of geometric nonlinearities. What is offered in the book which follows is a unified approach (for both discrete and continuous systems) to geometric nonlinearities which incidentally does not require a discussion of large strain. What makes this all work is perturbation theory. Let the equations of equilibrium for a system be written as where P represents the applied loads; F represents the member forces or stresses; and N represents the operator which describes system equilibrium.