General Stress Analysis
The results presented in earlier modules for trusses, beams, and
other simple shapes provide much of the information needed in design of
load-bearing structures. However, materials and structural engineers
routinely need to estimate stresses and deflections in geometrically more
irregular articles. This is the function of stress analysis, by
which we mean the collection of theoretical and experimental techniques
that goes beyond the direct-analysis approach used up to now. This is a
career field in its own right, and these modules will limit themselves to
outlining only a few of its principal features.