Book excerpt: As structural engineers move further into the age of digital com-putation and rely more heavily on computers to solve problems, it remains paramount that they understand the basic mathemat-ics and engineering principles used to design and analyze build-ing structures. The link between the basic concepts and appli-cation to real world problems is one of the most challenging learning endeavors that structural engineers face. The primary purpose of Numerical Structural Analysis is to assist structural engineering students with developing the abil-ity to solve complex structural analysis problems. This book will cover numerical techniques to solve mathematical formulations, which are necessary in developing the analysis procedures for structural engineering. Once the numerical formulations are un-derstood, engineers can then develop structural analysis meth-ods that use these techniques. This will be done primarily with matrix structural stiffness procedures. Finally, advanced stiffness topics will be developed and presented to solve unique struc-tural problems, including member end releases, non-prismatic, shear, geometric, and torsional stiffness.