This book is intended to supply engineering professionals and students with a comprehensive

and definitive reference to statics and dynamics of solids and structures. The book is for use
as a resource and design tool in research and development, and for use as a study guide and
learning aid in engineering education.
The book is written to meet the needs for interactive computing in technical referencing and
engineering education. These needs result from the design requirements for high-accuracy and
high-performance structures, machines and devices in a variety of engineering applications,
and from the trend of engineering curriculum development in response to today's environment
of fast-changing technologies. Chapter 1 further explains the purpose and philosophy of this
writing.
A unique feature of this book is the integration of the development of principles, formulas,
and solutions with user-friendly interactive computer programs, written in the powerful and
popular software MATLAB. These programs produce instant engineering solutions, which
cover pages of contents contained in a conventional handbook, and beyond. Different from
and complementary to general-purpose numerical codes, these programs deliver analytical
results pertaining to many topics covered in the book. Furthermore, with the rich resources
of MATLAB, these programs allow in-depth exploration of the physics of deformation, stress
and motion by analysis, simulation, graphics, and animation.
This book contains five main parts: strength of materials, structural mechanics, dynamics
and vibrations, structural dynamics, and two-dimensional elastic continua. Besides, the book
presents feedback control of mechanical systems and flexible structures to a great extent. These
subjects are covered in 15 chapters (Chapters 2 to 16), each being a self-contained package
of subject review, fundamental theories, formulas, and a toolbox of MATLAB functions
(computer programs) for numerical and analytical solutions. The MATLAB functions are
stored in a CD-ROM that is attached to the book. In addition, Appendix A collects commonly
used mathematical formulas for engineering analysis and Appendix B gives a tutorial on
MATLAB-based computing and programming.
There are two important points regarding this book. First, the book keeps a good bal-
ance between fundamental theory and technical computation. Such a balance, in the author's
opinion, will best serve design engineers who often need a quick subject review, and instant
engineering solutions at the same time. Second, the organization of the text closely follows
a curriculum on solid mechanics and structural dynamics adopted by a typical engineering
school. This naturally renders the book a useful study guide and learning aid for many courses.

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 All the numerical results in the book are obtained through use of the attached MATLAB
functions. All the artwork and tables in the book are created by the author; all the MATLAB
functions of the book are generated by the author. For theories and formulas that are generally
available, a list of references is provided at the end of each chapter. Specific formulas or results
from certain resources have been duly acknowledged.
Although much effort has been made to avoid errors, some of them are bound to escape
detection. The author welcomes and appreciates any comments and suggestions from readers
for necessary corrections and for further improvement of the quality of this work.

Bingen Yang
Los Angeles, California
December 2004