Book excerpt: This second edition of Examples in Structural Analysis uses a step-by-step approach and provides an extensive collection of fully worked and graded examples for a wide variety of structural analysis problems. It presents detailed information on the methods of solutions to problems and the results obtained. Also given within the text is a summary of each of the principal analysis techniques inherent in the design process and where appropriate, an explanation of the mathematical models used. The text emphasises that software should only be used if designers have the appropriate knowledge and understanding of the mathematical modelling, assumptions and limitations inherent in the programs they use. It establishes the use of hand-methods for obtaining approximate solutions during preliminary design and an independent check on the answers obtained from computer analyses. What’s New in the Second Edition: New chapters cover the development and use of influence lines for determinate and indeterminate beams, as well as the use of approximate analyses for indeterminate pin-jointed and rigid-jointed plane-frames. This edition includes a rewrite of the chapter on buckling instability, expands on beams and on the use of the unit load method applied to singly redundant frames. The x-y-z co-ordinate system and symbols have been modified to reflect the conventions adopted in the structural Eurocodes. William M. C. McKenzie is also the author of six design textbooks relating to the British Standards and the Eurocodes for structural design and one structural analysis textbook. As a member of the Institute of Physics, he is both a chartered engineer and a chartered physicist and has been involved in consultancy, research and teaching for more than 35 years.