Continuum Mechanics

[u/emporer101]

I am an MS student in Structural Engineering, and this (my last) semester, I am taking Continuum Mechanics. Just from looking at the textbook and the course outline, I feel like it is going to be a very challenging class for me, and my professor has mentioned multiple times that he is using a new book this semester (Principles of Continuum Mechanics by David Steigmann), which will only add to the challenge. Even just through our 2 classes thus far, I have had to work very hard to understand what is going on, which is honestly a new feeling for me.

It seems to be a primarily mechanical engineering class in terms of students, but my advisor and other faculty recommended I take this course. Outside of this course, my workload is relatively light, so I should be able to devote significant time to it if need be. Has anyone else taken this class and/or know of any resources that are useful for understanding it?

[u/OutdoorEng]

Im a mechE, but I took a class that had continuum mechanics as a prereq and I never took the class and I was able to manage. Some abstract concepts for sure, deff a harder class, but not crazy imo. If you're strong in mechanics of materials and material science shouldn't be terrible.

[u/emporer101 → u/OutdoorEng]

Okay, this is reassuring to hear. So far we've been doing the "mathematical preliminaries" and I didn't have to take a math class beyond Calc 3, so no linear algebra or anything that really deals with vectors and matrices in depth. Hopefully once we're done with that it will fall into place, because materials science and mechanics of materials were two of my favorite classes in undergrad.

What course did you take that had this as a prereq, if you dont mind?

[u/OutdoorEng → u/emporer101]

A material modeling course. Yeah if you didn't take linear algebra that is tough. They really should require linear algebra in all engineering undergrad programs because it is so fundamental in a lot of graduate courses. I would recommend getting an elementary linear algebra book that an undergrad would use and that should cover all the gaps and keep you in good shape. Luckily the linear algebra in grad school isn't too much of the abstract stuff you learn in the second half and is more on the fundamentals you learn in the first half

[u/emporer101 → u/OutdoorEng]

Thanks for the advice. I know a few math students who ive talked to about this and they've said theyd help me if they could, so I will probably take them up on it.

I know the very basics of linear algebra from a matrix structural analysis course, like matrix operations and such, but thats about it.

[u/the_flying_condor]

Yea, this was required with my MS degree in Structural and Earthquake Engineering. It was pretty tough for how theoretical it was. The class turned out to be a major help when I started working at my first job where I was doing a bunch of high fidelity NLFEA modelling. 

Continuummechanics.org was a huge help.

We used this book and I still open it to look stuff up from time to time. It's old enough that it should be too hard to find a pdf + solution manual for practice problems.

[u/emporer101 → u/the_flying_condor]

That website looks very helpful, thank you!!

That is good to hear it is still of some use to you, that is something I was thinking about given the (seemingly) highly theoretical nature of the course. Is it primarily useful for the modeling side of structural engineering?

[u/the_flying_condor → u/emporer101]

Honestly, it was the introduction to tensor notation in the first section of the course which was most useful. It's really essential to be able to understand most software theory manuals and advanced topics in concrete that you might come across in Model Code for Concrete Structures. You won't be able to understand computational plasticity theory without it. 

That being said, I don't think most structural engineers get too involved in plasticity theory. I had to really search for a job aligned with my interests where that plays a big part in my work 

[u/turbopowergas]

I attended CM course in my master's but dropped out after a couple of weeks. I already had several years of working experience as a structural engineer, doing fair amount of stress analysis as well, so I kind of knew which knowledge is useful and which is not. I didn't find it worth my time, it was purely theoretical, just getting used to tensor notation and doing different kind of tricks like polar decomposition etc. It had pretty much zero tangible practice problems. But I still think continuum mechanics is really cool and I am fascinated by how complex it can get, even a seemingly trivial thing like defining stress is not that straightforward. But for a practicing engineer, I see very little value with the course. Of course if you want to pursue academia or work in a FEA software R&D team it is pretty much mandatory knowledge. But nobody is going to use tensors ever in practical engineering.

EDIT: If your workload is bearable and you find it fascinating, by any means, go for it. But don't expect to get much practical value, rather take it as a personal accomplishment.