Book reviews
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s00158-002-0217-z
Inelastic analysis of structures, Milan Jirásek and Zdeněk P.
Bažant, John Wiley & Sons, 2002, ISBN 0-471-98716-6,
758 Pages
S. Turteltaub
This book deals with a wide range of topics of inelastic be-
havior of materials and structures. It is structured in five
parts, comprised of 29 chapters. The first four parts are
concerned with (rate-independent) plasticity whereas the
last one covers viscoplasticity and creep. Several appen-
dices provide background material and summarize spe-
cial topics. Although the book was written as a textbook
for first and second year graduate students, it can also
be used, due to its scope and length, as a handbook in
plasticity.
After a brief introduction to plasticity, the first two
parts of the book are mainly concerned with applications
to structures. It is a systematic introduction to beams,
trusses and frames and the analysis is based on a sim-
ple isotropic, perfectly elastoplastic model. The authors
introduce each subject inductively via a series of well-
chosen examples, which are subsequently solved in detail.
This part includes topics that are not typically covered
in plasticity books, notably optimal design using limit
and shakedown analysis. A natural extension to three-
dimensional continuum plasticity is presented in the third
part of the book. The authors include an appendix that
summarizes cartesian tensors, though the reader should
have taken an elementary course in elasticity. Classical
yield conditions and flow rules are covered in this part.
The first three parts of the book might be appealing to
structural engineers who are also interested in learning
about optimization.
The fourth part of the book treats various more ad-
vanced topics on material behavior, numerical methods,
continuum thermodynamics, crystal plasticity and con-
stitutively and geometrically nonlinear behavior. Addi-
Received March 8, 2002
S. Turteltaub
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineer-
ing, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands
Struct Multidisc Optim 24, 87  Springer-Verlag 2002
tionally, of interest to civil engineers, a chapter that cov-
ers modelling of concrete and soils is also included. In
line with the authors’ style in the first three parts of the
book, several examples are included in each section, al-
though, understandably so, they serve mainly to further
develop the theory. A remarkable and useful feature of the
chapters in this part is that they have a clear and self-
contained introduction to each topic.
The last part of the book is comprised of an assorted
collection of subjects grouped under the common theme
of time-dependent behavior. It includes non-local theo-
ries, viscoplasticity and creep and shrinkage in concrete.
Some of these chapters summarize recently published and
ongoing research work by the authors and others.
In general, parts I, II and III seem geared towards
application-oriented structural engineers whereas parts
IV and V might be more appealing to researchers inter-
ested in theoretical aspects of plasticity. In this sense, the
book has enough material for two separate courses.
There is a comprehensive list of references, spanning
different sources and approaches. A list of problems is
included at the end of each chapter. Solutions to these
problems (as well as errata) are available on line at Wi-
ley’s site (www.wiley.co.uk/inelastic/).
Overall the book is well written and the presentation
of each subject is systematic and coherent. The authors’
aim to proceed from simple examples to complex gener-
alizations was achieved, particularly in the first parts of
the book. Due to its length, it is appealing for students
and researchers who are looking for a comprehensive book
on plasticity that covers both material and structural as-
pects of plasticity.