Vibration Theory and Engineering Practice

Abstract

INTRICATE vibration phenomena have at all times attracted the attention of the physical investigator, and vibration theory is a wide field well and fruitfully cultivated by the mathematician. The achievements of pure science and of analytical method in this line are quite remarkable; but in the past the engineer has only had a casual interest therein, the simplest elements of the subject serving his purposes. Within comparatively recent times, however, he has been compelled to change that attitude. The extraordinary advances in size, speed, and type of modern engines have brought in their train a somewhat confused but certainly important series of vibration problems. These have only been reasonably solved under the combined impetus of serious failures, elaborate investigation, and the resources of high theory. The rise, development, and control of these difficulties have been rapid, and it is therefore not surprising that authoritative treatises on the methods of analysis of problems peculiar to vibration phenomena in mechanical engineering are mainly conspicuous by their absence. A warm welcome is therefore to be extended to the present attempt to fill the gap, especially when the author is so able a writer on analytical subjects as Prof. Timoshenko of the University of Michigan.

Vibration Problems in Engineering.

By Prof. S. Timoshenko. Pp. vi + 351. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1929.) 21s. net.