Symbolic computation in structural engineering

✍ Scribed by M.N. Pavlović

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 164 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0045-7949
• DOI: 10.1016/s0045-7949(03)00286-4

✦ Synopsis

Nowadays computers can perform symbolic calculations--in addition to mere numerical computations for which they were originally designed--and this opens up exciting possibilities in structural engineering and mechanics. Until relatively recently, this computer-algebra option was hardly exploited except for a handful of pioneering enthusiasts. As symbolic computations are finally beginning to experience a reasonably widespread awareness--and usage--it seems timely to review their past applications to structural-mechanics problems and to point to areas where significant advances are yet to come. What emerges is a picture where areas of classical analysis--increasingly neglected since the advent of computers--now re-emerge as attractive computational options, as well as a more balanced view that no longer sees analytical techniques and numerical methods as incompatible opposites but combines their usage in a rational way.