Classic and/or Good Textbooks? 3

[Archie264]

A post by AELLC caused me to look up Russell S. Fling. This caused me to find his textbook, "Practical Design of Reinforced Concrete" on sale on Amazon for a trifling sum ($4 or $5, maybe?). At first perusal it appears to be excellent! I wish it had been the textbook I studied under, in fact. Apparently Russell Fling was an accomplished practitioner who owned his own consulting firm for many years and was president of ACI between 1976 & 1977. With that background it doesn't surprise me that he was able to write such a good book.

The book I got used to be part of a university's library. I think libraries are divesting themselves of books, which can then be had for a song. So...what other books out there are worth snapping up? There's only so much room on my bookshelf but there's always room for a good one...

Some recommendations I have include the following:

"Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice" by Terzaghi & Peck
"Structural Analysis" by Harold I. Laursen
"Theory of Plates & Shells" by Timoshenko & Woinowski-Krieger
"Data Book for Civil Engineers" by Elwyn E. Seelye

What others? Care to share your secrets? What say ye-all?

 

[jayrod12]

Not sure if it was mentioned yet but I have found the steel book "Limit States Design in Structural Steel" by Kulak and Grondin to be useful for some of the more typical steel design that adheres to the Canadian codes. I don't have the updated version to account for the changes to tension and shear block failure but useful none the less.

 

[MikeE55]

Lots of good books listed here. I would recommend adding "Design of Welded Structures" by Omer Blodgett. It's a classic.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

CELinOttawa got that covered for you but it definitely isn't hurt by another mention. Great book that, I need to get one for myself even though we already have an office copy here.

Another good one is the Historical Record Dimensions and Properties, Rolled Shapes, Steel and Wrought Iron, Beams & Columns Compiled by Herbert W. Ferris and published by AISC. Lists almost all the rolled shapes from 1873 to 1952. The 13th AISC manual has the shapes on a CD (and now an app for smartphones) but this book also gives the history of ASTM and AISC structural steel specifications, minimum yield stresses, tensile strengths, and the dates they were used. AMAZINGLY useful when dealing with old steel structures.

Maine EIT, Civil/Structural.

 

[CELinOttawa]

Pirate: Thanks for the credit on Blogget, an amazing text.

FYI: AISC's Design Guide 15 is meant to be the new and improved "Historical Record Dimensions and Properties, Rolled Shapes, Steel and Wrought Iron, Beams & Columns"; I've never seen the original, so I have no idea if there is anything different or missing in the "update".

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Yep, you're right. I really should use DG 15 more often. It does appear to be very, very similar to the historical shapes book but they definitely added some good info.

I've got libraries and libraries of PDFs me and other engineers have downloaded, really should go through them someday and see what we actually have.

Maine EIT, Civil/Structural.

 

[wannabeSE]

Along with other useful publications, Historical Record Dimensions and Properties, Rolled Shapes, Steel and Wrought Iron, Beams & Columns can be found on Sliderule Era's website in the "Contributions by Others" section.

http://www.slideruleera.net/

 

[civeng80]

Dont forget Timoshenko.

Strength of materials Particularly vol 1 and 2
Theory of structures old but still good IMHO