Choice Review

Kelly specifically prepared this well-suited work for undergraduate and beginning graduate mechanical, aerospace, and structural engineering students. He emphasizes topics on mathematical modeling of engineering systems, focusing on the fundamentals of vibrations. The materials are presented clearly, concisely, and effectively. Although offering the basic, underlying theoretical principles and solution techniques of engineering vibrations, the book distinguishes itself in its emphasis on the physical interpretation of governing equations and their results. The 11 chapters cover basic principles of dynamics, elements of vibrating systems, free and forced vibrations of single and multi-degree freedom systems, stability, periodic and nonperiodic excitations, continuous systems, numerical methods, nonlinear systems, energy methods, and vibration controls. The material is supplemented by effective illustrations, photographs, and some Fortran programs. Each chapter contains a large number of practice problems and a list of useful references. The diskette contains the "VIBES" software, with illustrative problems for solution and numerical method programs. The five appendixes cover unit impulse and step functions, Laplace transforms, linear alegbra, beam deflections, and the VIBES software package. Recommended. Advanced undergraduate through professional. R. B. Malla; University of Connecticut