The derivation and understanding of Partial Differential Equations relies heavily on the fundamental knowledge of the first years of scientific education, i.e., higher mathematics, physics, materials science, applied mechanics, design, and programming skills. Thus, it is a challenging topic for prospective engineers and scientists. This volume provides a compact overview on the classical Partial Differential Equations of structural members in mechanics. It offers a formal way to uniformly describe these equations. All derivations follow a common approach: the three fundamental equations of continuum mechanics, i.e., the kinematics equation, the constitutive equation, and the equilibrium equation, are combined to construct the partial differential equations.

This book is the second edition of an introduction to modern computational mechanics based on the finite element method. It includes more details on the theory, more exercises, and more consistent notation; in addition, all pictures have been revised. Featuring more than 100 pages of new material, the new edition will help students succeed in mechanics courses by showing them how to apply the fundamental knowledge they gained in the first years of their engineering education to more advanced topics. In order to deepen readers’ understanding of the equations and theories discussed, each chapter also includes supplementary problems. These problems start with fundamental knowledge questions on the theory presented in the respective chapter, followed by calculation problems. In total, over 80 such calculation problems are provided, along with brief solutions for each. This book is especially designed to meet the needs of Australian students, reviewing the mathematics covered in their first two years at university. The 13-week course comprises three hours of lectures and two hours of tutorials per week.