ENME E3113: Mechanics of Solids
Discover how solid materials respond to force - the essential stepping stone to mastering Structural Design in Civil Engineering.
Course Overview
This course will develop your understanding of mechanics of solids - the foundation of civil and mechanical engineering. You will explore the concepts of stresses and strains, and their fundamental relationship. Using this knowledge, you will analyze simple structural elements subjected to axial forces, bending moments, shear forces and torsion.
This preparatory course lays the foundation for our Structural Design course, where you will apply theoretical concepts to the practical design of structural elements and systems.
Course Instructor
Raimondo Betti
Professor
Betti is a leading researcher in structural health monitoring - a field essential to the safety, maintenance, and rehabilitation of national infrastructure.
His research focuses on monitoring the structural health of buildings and bridges, with particular emphasis on rapid damage assessment. In the area of structural system identification, Betti is developing computer algorithms that use response data to create high-fidelity models which predict future behavior and detect structural damage in buildings and bridges. Betti has also pioneered a multi-sensor system that continuously monitors the cable conditions of suspension bridges. This data has enabled Betti and his team to develop methodologies for estimating the remaining strength and longevity of suspension bridge cables.
Betti holds a Laurea (Magna cum Laude) in Civil Engineering from the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” (1985), and an MS in Structural Mechanics (1988) and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California (1991). He is a member of the ASCE, serves on the Board of Governors of the International Association of Structural Control and Monitoring, and acts as Expert Advisor for Bridge Monitoring and Cable Corrosion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. For his work on structural health monitoring of suspension bridges, Betti has been awarded the Aftab Mufti Medal by the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (2017) and the ASCE Norman Medal (2024).