Ove Arup Foundation

The Teaching of Structural Analysis - a Report

The fourth in a series of occasional reports commissioned by The Ove Arup Foundation was published in February 2009. An investigation into the teaching of structural analysis in UK universities, the report stems from an approach to the Foundation by the authors, Professor Ian M May of Heriot Watt University and Dr David Johnson, formerly of Nottingham Trent University.

"Structural analysis is one of the essential building blocks for good design in engineering and architecture," says Richard Haryott, Chairman of the Foundation's Trustees. "We therefore invited the authors to consider how structural analysis can be taught in such a way as to encourage students to develop a feel for how structures behave, and in so doing to create simplicity and elegance of thought and outcome."

The report begins with an outline of the current state of structural analysis teaching. The results are given of the authors' extensive survey of the topics taught and resources utilised within structural analysis, supported by a survey of the skills industry required of engineering graduates. The survey results are then discussed, highlighting a number of areas of concern to academics, together with recommendations as to what the authors believe should be taught.

The report, which is titled 'The Teaching of Structural Analysis', concludes that a consensus does exist between academics and practitioners on course content, and the priority given to constituent topics. But, although conceptual design, approximate analysis and structural behaviour pattern recognition are valued highly by both groups, the competence in those topic areas of graduating students has scarcely advanced in 30 years. Moreover, despite the widespread application of computer analysis in practice, undergraduate students are rarely exposed to more than routine checking of hand solutions by computer and unlikely to be exposed to the structural validation and verification of computer analyses.

A copy of the report can be downloaded below.

Teaching Structural Analysis (500 KB pdf)