Structural dynamics is a basic core course at the Master’s level in Structural
Engineering and an advanced elective course at the undergraduate level in most Civil
Engineering programme at most universities in India.
The present Structural Dynamics
course introduces the basic concepts of dynamic loading and the response of structures
to such loads, and then uses these concepts to illustrate applications in practical
structures.
It begins with the derivation of the basic equations of motion for an ideal
single degree-of-freedom structure using various approaches, and the solution of these
equations for different types of loading, with the emphasis on the physical behaviour of the structure to different types of loads to establish simplified methods of analysis (Topic 2).
A focus on the numerical methods for response analysis is given in Topic 3,
and an emphasis on earthquake response of structures is provided in Topic 4.
This
naturally then leads to development of equations for multi-degree-of-freedom
structures, with multi‐storied buildings as the example structures, and free and forced
vibration response analysis of these multi‐storied buildings (Topics 5‐7).
A simplified
analysis of MDOF systems using the concept of generalized single degree‐of‐freedom
systems is introduced in Topic 8.
An introduction to the dynamics of continuous
systems is provided in Topic 9. Example problems are solved throughout the course to
illustrate the theoretical concepts.
Contents:
Dynamics of single DOF systems; Earthquake response of SDOF systems - response spectra; Numerical methods for dynamic analysis;
Equations of motion for
MDOF systems; free vibration analysis; response analysis of MDOF systems - mode
superposition method, damping considerations, and codal provisions; Dynamics of
continuous systems.
