Vibration of Discrete and Continuous Systems

Mechanical engineering, an engineering discipline borne of the needs of the industrial revolution, is once again asked to do its substantial share in the call for industrial renewal. This text, which is intended to follow the author's Theory of Vibration: An Introduction, aims to further the understanding, both physical and mathematical, of the theory of vibration and its applications, here focusing on discrete and continuous systems. As in the previous volume, the text develops the techniques used to analyze vibrations in mechanical and structural systems from their foundations rationally and in clearly understandable stages. Intended for a graduate course in the theory of vibration, the explanations of procedures and details are easily understandable by students. A new chapter on computer methods for the eigenvalue problem has been added for this edition; it includes discussions of the similarity transformation, generalized eigenvectors, the Jacobi method, the Householder transformation, and QR decomposition.