Juan José Benito Muñoz

La idea de Estructura está relacionada con términos como trama, forma complejo y otros análogos, lo que pone de manifiesto, ya desde el comienzo, la idea de conjunto de elementos interrelacionados. Con un criterio de generalidad pero dentro del contexto del "Ingeniería Mecánica y Civil", se puede definir una estructura como "un conjunto de elementos organizados y distribuidos de forma adecuada para cumplir la finalidad de resistir un sistema determinado de solicitaciones".

This book presents an introduction to the Finite Element Method (FEM) and is primarily aimed at students, engineers and scientists who already know structural calculation. It starts from the matrix reformulation of the direct stiffness method to understand the enormous potential of introducing the idea of the weak formulation for the approximation of strut structure problems. The correspondence of results between the initial classical formulation and that of the FEM when using linear shape functions and Hermite polynomials, makes it possible to approach its general formulation more easily as a procedure to obtain approximate solutions of differential equations in partial derivatives. It is essential now to introduce the idea of element, which allows, from the definition of a reduced number of base functions and through a simple combination process, to approximate its real behavior and, through superposition, that of the structure.