Models of mechanics (Q2500503)

The book consists mainly of materials for an advanced master course. It requires a basic understanding of engineering mechanics, continuum mechanics, material modeling, structure mechanics, and fluid mechanics. The book focusses on the modeling of mechanics, where the concept of a model shall be understood in its broadest sense, namely as a mathematical structure which describes mechanical phenomena. This includes not only mass points and rigid bodies, but also the continuum mechanics of continua, both solid or fluid ones. Klarbing claims to present a novel ''unified approach'', which stands for a general scheme for all theories of classical mechanics. Accordingly, the introductary part of the book is rather abstract. However, in the applications to different branches, the material becomes more familiar to the reader. We find beams, bars and pipes, but also higher-dimensional continua. Some appendices are addressed to basic mathematical tools such as sets and functions, linear spaces, and analysis. A list of notations and an index are helpful to the reader. The little book with about 200 pages tackles many theories and concepts, without going much into detail. If one is interested in a deeper understanding, further monographs should be consulted. However, the list of literature in the book consists of only 20 references and is by no means helpful for that purpose.