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94-Theory of Matrix Structural Analysis

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10 views

94-Theory of Matrix Structural Analysis

Uploaded by

jinshuaixu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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358 ANNOUNCEMENTSAND REVIEW

5. ANECHOIC CHAMBER MUSIC RECORDING


A recording has been made in the Building Research Station’s anechoic chamber (free space-
46 ft long x 30 ft wide x 32 ft high) of music played by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble (five
players), and the English Chamber Orchestra (thirty-four players). The Brass Ensemble
played two pieces-Royal Pavane by Gibbons, and Tarrantango by Alan Civil. The Chamber
Orchestra played four pieces-the last movement of Symphony No. 41 by Mozart, the slow
movement of Symphony No. 102 by Haydn, the last movement of Sinfonietta No. 1 by
Malcolm Arnold, and part of the Siegfried Idyll by Wagner.
The orchestras were on a wooden platform, and the recordings (monophonic and stereo-
phonic) were made by the BBC Transcription Unit, with the microphones placed so as to
give as good an overall balance as possible. In addition to the music, the Chamber Orchestra
played staccato and sustained chords; the tape also has pure tones and pink noise for cali-
bration purposes. The total duration of the music is about 23 minutes.
Copies of the tape (either monophonic or stereophonic) are available to research establish-
ments only at &25. Further details of the recording may be obtained from P.H. Parkin,
Building Research Station, Garston, Watford, WD2 7JR.

BOOK REVIEW
THEORY OF MATRIX STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS,by J. S. Przemieniecki. New York : McGraw-Hill
Book Company, 1968
This latest addition to the ever increasing number of books on matrix methods of structural
analysis is the most authoritative one yet produced. In one volume the author produces both
an introductory text for graduate students and a reference source for practising structural
engineers.
The book begins by describing the factors which influenced the development of the subject
and also the role it plays in structural design. This is followed by a resume of the basic
equations of the theory of elasticity and the energy theorems which assist in providing
solutions. The next chapter shows how an actual structure is represented by a discrete-element
mathematical model. At this stage the necessary groundwork has been covered for the study
of the actual methods of analysis. Two chapters are devoted to the displacement method. The
first derives the stiffness properties of the discrete elements whilst the second analyses the
assembled structure. Only simple structural elements are presented but references are given
for the more sophisticated models. Two more chapters are devoted to presenting the force
method of analysis which incorporates a technique for automatically selecting redundancies.
In applying these methods to large structures, the capacity of available computers is very often
exceeded. This can be overcome by using the concept of substructure analysis. One chapter
presents the details of this very important aspect for both the displacement and force methods.
The next four chapters are concerned with the dynamic analysis of structures. This is the
first book to present this aspect of theory in any great detail. The first of these chapters pro-
vides an introduction to the concepts of dynamics. In the second the equivalent mass matrices
of various discrete elements are derived. The third chapter describes methods of analysing
the free vibrations of the complete structure. Here the techniques are classified as stiffness and
flexibility methods and not displacement and force as in static analysis. The stiffness method
is, in fact, a direct extension of the displacement method to dynamic analysis. The flexibility
method utilizes the force method to derive a flexibility matrix and the displacement method
to derive an equivalent mass matrix. The author chooses to refer the reader to standard texts,
which remain unspecified, for methods of solving the eigenvalue problem which gives the
BOOKREVIEW 359
natural frequencies and modes of the structure. The final chapter in this group presents
methods of calculating the response of both undamped and damped structures to dynamic
loads. In both civil and aeronautical engineering many dynamic loads are random in nature,
and yet this important aspect does not even get a mention. Also in dynamics the analysis of
a large structure poses an even greater computing problem than the equivalent static analysis.
It is therefore disappointing that the author does not present details of dynamic substructure
analysis.
The final two chapters deal with some relatively newer concepts of matrix structural
analysis. The first gives a short introduction to minimum weight design using linear and non-
linear optimization techniques. In the second the methods of linear structural analysis are
extended to include both geometric and material non-linearities. The last topic in this chapter
describes how to determine the influence of a constant axial force on the transverse vibrations
of beams. The concepts presented here can be extended to solve more complex problems of
a similar nature.
An appendix on matrix algebra is included for the benefit of readers who are a little un-
familiar with the necessary techniques. A second appendix lists 422 references on the subject,
a very welcome inclusion.
The Preface states that the book is intended for the graduate student and the practising
structural engineer. The author is to be congratulated on achieving these aims. The examples
presented are extremely simple and illustrative. In addition, problems have been provided at
the end of ten chapters. On the other hand many of the advanced concepts, which are necessary
for analysing large structures, have been presented. Although many parts of the book have
a very strong aeronautical bias, the details of the theory have been presented in such a manner
that it can readily be applied to civil engineering structures.
M. PETYT

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