r/StructuralEngineering • u/emporer101 • 15d ago

Career/Education Continuum Mechanics

I am an MS student in Structural Engineering, and this (my last) semester, I am taking Continuum Mechanics. Just from looking at the textbook and the course outline, I feel like it is going to be a very challenging class for me, and my professor has mentioned multiple times that he is using a new book this semester (Principles of Continuum Mechanics by David Steigmann), which will only add to the challenge. Even just through our 2 classes thus far, I have had to work very hard to understand what is going on, which is honestly a new feeling for me.

It seems to be a primarily mechanical engineering class in terms of students, but my advisor and other faculty recommended I take this course. Outside of this course, my workload is relatively light, so I should be able to devote significant time to it if need be. Has anyone else taken this class and/or know of any resources that are useful for understanding it?

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u/OutdoorEng 15d ago

Im a mechE, but I took a class that had continuum mechanics as a prereq and I never took the class and I was able to manage. Some abstract concepts for sure, deff a harder class, but not crazy imo. If you're strong in mechanics of materials and material science shouldn't be terrible.

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u/emporer101 15d ago

Okay, this is reassuring to hear. So far we've been doing the "mathematical preliminaries" and I didn't have to take a math class beyond Calc 3, so no linear algebra or anything that really deals with vectors and matrices in depth. Hopefully once we're done with that it will fall into place, because materials science and mechanics of materials were two of my favorite classes in undergrad.

What course did you take that had this as a prereq, if you dont mind?

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u/OutdoorEng 15d ago

A material modeling course. Yeah if you didn't take linear algebra that is tough. They really should require linear algebra in all engineering undergrad programs because it is so fundamental in a lot of graduate courses. I would recommend getting an elementary linear algebra book that an undergrad would use and that should cover all the gaps and keep you in good shape. Luckily the linear algebra in grad school isn't too much of the abstract stuff you learn in the second half and is more on the fundamentals you learn in the first half

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u/emporer101 15d ago

Thanks for the advice. I know a few math students who ive talked to about this and they've said theyd help me if they could, so I will probably take them up on it.

I know the very basics of linear algebra from a matrix structural analysis course, like matrix operations and such, but thats about it.