Stress/Structural engineering resource recommendation

[davemechuk]

Hi,

Question: Can you make any suggestions of entry level books that will help me to follow a career as a Stress Engineer?

Background:

I've been in the nuclear industry now for 1.5 years (Graduate role) and tried lots of job roles in Mechanical Engineering; Manufacturing, Safety, Stress and Design. I've now found my 'niche' and wish to purse a career as a Stress Engineer.

I'm looking for a book or two that I can use as a reference to help me understand the fundamental theories behind stress and strain. Maybe a little less technical than Roarks. I've forgotten a few bits I learned through uni, so a book aimed at someone at Uni or just leaving will be great.

Thanks

Dave, MSc(Eng), AMIMechE
Graduate Stress Engineer
(2 Years left for Chartership!)

 

[Ron]

Go back and blow the dust off those textbooks you had in 2nd and 3rd year. Statics and dynamics, strength of materials, etc. Those give you the basics. Roark gives formulae and "work arounds", but not strong on theory. You might consider the classics of Timoshenko and others for elastic theory.

I'm not sure what a "Stress Engineer" is, other than constantly computing stresses in various materials. Almost all structural and mechanical engineers do this routinely.

I'll paraphrase one of my professors of long ago....

"Aspirin is often prescribed to relieve stress and strain....If you don't know the difference between stress and strain on your final exam, you'll need the aspirin!"......that would be what is called a "stressed" engineer.

 

[davemechuk]

Thanks for your response, that's my problem, I never purchased any books, only the odd course I did had a textbook as 'compulsory'. When I did buy a book i never used it, so only used the material provided by the professors; and I don't have all my notes to provide any book recommendation.

My main objective is to obtain any recommendations from this community, going to go back and email my professors.

It is curious but i think Stress Engineer is used only for a Mechanical Engineer specialising in Stress/Thermal Analysis in my company. I'm aware that the role can be named many other things. I guess technically I'm a Analytical engineer?

In the role I'm doing I'm likely required to do the following analyses:
-Design by analysis of Pressure vessels (ASME III, etc)
-Linear/non-linear analysis using FEA
-static and dynamic analysis
-stress hand calculations (Roark etc) elastic and plastic analysis
-thermal analysis

Dave, MSc(Eng), AMIMechE
Graduate Stress Engineer
(2 Years left for Chartership!)

 

[TERIO]

Some items in my library on the subjects you mention are:

- Design by analysis of vessels: "Criteria of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code for Design by Analysis in Sections III and VIII, Division 2", ASME, 1969
- FEA: "Concepts and Applications of Finite Element Analysis", Robert D. Cook
- Strength of Materials: "Advanced Strength of Materials", J.P. Den Hartog (inexpensive paperback)
- Dynamics: "Mechanical Vibrations", J.P. Den Hartog (inexpensive paperback)
- Heat transfer: "Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer", Incropera & DeWitt