Variational and Finite Element Methods

The variational approach, including the direct method of finite elements, is one of the main tools of engineering analysis. However, it is difficult for college seniors as well as graduate students to appreciate. It is possible to make this subject easier to understand with the help of symbolic manipulation codes (SMC). The easiness with which these codes provide analytical results allow a student or researcher to focus on the ideas rather than on calculational difficulties. This book is the first one which systematically resorts to a symbolic computation code to present finite elements in such a way that they can be used as an expert system. The presentation is complemented by a variety of problems on different levels of difficulty at the end of each chapter. Solutions are given in a separate section in the appendix of the book.