This course has been discontinued
There is an assortment of structural analysis programs available today that engineers are using to solve problems like space trusses and frames with multiple load cases. Engineers generally have some idea how the design code part of the program works, but most are mystified by the algorithm used by the computer to calculate the reactions, displacements and member forces. The method, sometimes called the matrix method, is usually a graduate level course in engineering.
This 3-hour online course is an introduction to the matrix method, explaining the basic theory and mathematics in terms likely to be understood by the typical practitioner. There is a brief calculus refresher for differentiation of polynomials, an introduction to matrix algebra and a succession of examples solved in minute detail so that an engineer can follow along and learn the algorithm even if his work has not involved taking a derivative in several decades.
This is an introductory course, so it develops the method up through plane trusses only. Subsequent courses are planned to carry the algorithm into finite elements, frames and 3-dimensional problems.
Due to the extensive math used in this course, the Body is presented in Word document format and must be downloaded.
A test is included at the end of this course.