Structural engineers play the most important role in designing and construction practices. The past few disasters have exposed serious deficiencies in structural engineering practices, mainly due to a lack of knowledge and understanding among engineers. With the increased awareness about disaster preparedness, the demand for learning resources has increased. The design codes for all countries (as IS codes for India) with their modified recommendations show light on the basics of how to design a structure. Non-exposure to the world of books may set engineers back with ideas and concepts required for practical difficulties of designing.
Here is a list of ten books, a must-read for structural engineers:
1. Building Structures Illustrated By Francis D.K. Ching
The book emphasises the behavior of structural elements under a different variety of applied loads with various support conditions seems critical for professionals, how to select, design sections, and shapes, and also to choose appropriate structural materials. This book deals with fundamental principles that govern the behavior of all the individual structural systems with a holistic approach to building structures.
2. Elementary Structural Analysis and Design of Buildings By Dominick R. Pilla
The tagline of this book is "A Guide for Practicing Engineers and Students" and is presented as an introduction to the process of building structural analysis and design as performed by professional structural engineers. The book is meant to provide a simple representation of concepts and show how to apply them in the design process. The reader of this book is assumed to have a basic working knowledge of the design of building structures.
3. Some Concepts in Earthquake Behavior of Buildings By C.V.R. Murty, Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority.
Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority has sponsored the research by the authors led by C.V.R. Murty and the book is a bible for structural engineers and students everything is explained in a simple way. All the concepts are discussed as per the Indian geological scenario.
4. Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures By Pankaj Agarwal & Manish Shrikhande
It's a step-by-step guideline for the analysis and design of structures considering the effect of earthquake shaking on structures. The textbook-like approach will definitely help students of UG and PG levels. Practicing engineers can also be benefitted revising the concepts again.
5. Principles of Foundation Engineering By Braja M. Das
This book describes everything in Foundation Engineering from the Geotechnical properties of soil to foundation types including soil improvement techniques. This book includes one very interesting chapter that is the Foundation on difficult soils i.e., on expansible, collapsible, and sanitary soils.
6. Dynamics of Structures By J. L. Humar
Without studying Structural Dynamics, knowledge of structural engineering is incomplete. As every applied load on a structure is practically time-varying and dynamic in nature, all material, members, and various objects resting on the structure are subjected to dynamic disturbances. Analysis of responses due to vibration has considerable importance for the design of structures.
7. Foundation Analysis and Design By Joseph E. Bowles
This is a textbook-like approach, also widely used as a practitioner's reference, including the latest suggested design and analysis techniques. This book emphasizes computer-aided methods and the Finite-Element Method (FEM) to meet the modern methods of analysis.
8. Tall Building Design By Bungale S. Taranath
Tall building design involves steel, concrete, and composite systems and requires a different approach to evaluate the safety conditions. This book is a standard for tall buildings to study wind and seismic behavior on structures. Present-day design is often carried out using computer software, dependency on this software can be inadequate.
9. The Analysis of Irregular Shaped Structures By R. Terry Malone
These days structures in urban areas became more complex as the shapes of the plots are irregular and the builder wants to utilise each and every inch of the plot for a very obvious reason. An architect may show creativity, but for a structural designer, it's very complex to design an irregular shape structure as those are more vulnerable to horizontal forces than regular ones. Analysis and use of diaphragm and shear walls are presented in this book.
10. Advanced Concrete Technology By Zongjin Li
Concrete is the most widely used material for structural construction in the entire world. It is very essential to understand the basic behaviors of concrete for students and practicing structural engineers. Latest innovations, methodologies, and development in this field are being introduced.
If you think I have missed something to include, please mention it in the comment section.
