This book provides the reader with a consistent approach to theory of structures on the basis of applied mechanics. It covers framed structures as well as plates and shells using elastic and plastic theory, and emphasizes the historical background and the relationship to practical engineering activities. This is the first comprehensive treatment of the school of structures that has evolved at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich over the last 50 years. The many worked examples and exercises make this a textbook ideal for in-depth studies. Each chapter concludes with a summary that highlights the most important aspects in concise form. Specialist terms are defined in the appendix. There is an extensive index befitting such a work of reference. The structure of the content and highlighting in the text make the book easy to use. The notation, properties of materials and geometrical properties of sections plus brief outlines of matrix algebra, tensor calculus and calculus of variations can be found in the appendices. This publication should be regarded as a key work of reference for students, teaching staff and practising engineers. Its purpose is to show readers how to model and handle structures appropriately, to support them in designing and checking the structures within their sphere of responsibility.

The Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) handbook can be used by trained personnel to identify, inventory, and screen buildings that are potentially seismically vulnerable. The RVS procedure comprises a method and several forms that help users to quickly identify, inventory, and score buildings according to their risk of collapse if hit by major earthquakes. The RVS handbook describes how to identify the structural type and key weakness characteristics, how to complete the screening forms, and how to manage a successful RVS program.

This book presents the design of steel structures using finite element methods (FEM) according to the current state of the art in Germany and the rest of Europe. After a short introduction on the basics of the design, this book illustrates the FEM with a focus on internal forces, displacements, critical loads and modal shapes. Next to finite element procedures for linear calculations considering the stress states of normal force, biaxial bending and warping torsion, non-linear calculations and the stability cases of flexural buckling, lateral torsional buckling and plate buckling are concentrated on significantly. In this context, design procedures for stability according to the standard Eurocode 3 is introduced and discussed. In addition, important fundamental issues are covered, such as the determination of cross-section properties as well as the elastic and plastic cross-section resistance. Complementary, finite element procedures for cross sections are dealt with, which will have an increasing importance in future. This book has evolved within the teaching activities of the authors in the lecture Computer-oriented Design of Steel Structures on the Master?s Program Computational Engineering at the University of Bochum. It covers the total variety of demands needed to be discussed for the safe, economic and modern design of steel structures.