文档介绍：Hutton: Fundamentals of Finite Element Analysis Front Matter Preface ? The McGraw?Hill Companies, 2004 F undamentals of Finite Element Analysis is intended to be the text for a senior-level ?nite element course in engineering programs. The most appropriate major programs are civil engineering, engineering mechan- ics, and mechanical engineering. The ?nite element method is such a widely used analysis-and-design technique that it is essential that undergraduate engineering students have a basic knowledge of the theory and applications of the technique. Toward that objective, I developed and taught an undergraduate “special topics” course on the ?nite element method at Washington State University in the sum- mer of 1992. The course posed of approximately two-thirds theory and one-third use mercial software in solving ?nite element problems. Since that time, the course has e a regularly offered technical elective in the mechanical engineering program and is generally in high demand. During the developmental process for the course, I was never satis?ed with any text that was used, and we tried many. I found the available texts to be at one extreme or the other; namely, essentially no theory and all software application, or all theory and no software application. The former approach, in my opinion, represents training in puter programs, while the latter represents graduate-level study. I have written this text to seek a middle ground. Pedagogically, I believe that training undergraduate engineering students to use a particular software package without providing knowledge of the underlying theory is a disservice to the student and can be dangerous for their future employ- ers. While I am acutely aware that most engineering programs have a speci?c ?nite element software package available for student use, I do not believe that the text the students use should be tied only to that software. Therefore, I have writ- ten this text to be software-independent. I emphasize the