About the author: dr. R. Vaidyanathan , visiting professor of civil engineering, mepco schlenk engineering college, sivakasi was formerly principal of government college of engineering, tirunelveli, tamil nadu. He has been teaching civil engineering for over four decades. After his retirement from government service, he served in various capacities such as advisor, principal and director in private colleges and has now chosen to revert to civil engineering as visiting professor. He graduated from a. C. College of engineering and technology in 1959 and took his masters degree in structural engineering from college of engineering, guindy where he was also teaching. He did his doctorate in the area of shell structures for iit, chennai in the early seventies. Dr. R. Vaidyanathan, has published several technical papers, organized technical seminars and continuing education programmes, guided u. G. And master projects and produced three ph. Ds. He has been a consultant on diverse civil engineering problems ranging form concrete technology, rehabilitation of structures, construction of shell structures, vibration problems, non-destructive field testing etc. This is the second of his three books on structural analysis that would directly address the students' intellect. Dr. P. Perumal , the first and proud doctoral candidate of dr. R. Vaidyanathan, originally started his career with a diploma in civil engineering in 1974. He graduated from a. C. College of engineering and technology, karaikudi in 1981 and took his m. E. (1987) and ph. D. (1995) from government college of technology, coimbatore. After a short period of field work, he entered polytechnic teaching and served for seven years. For the past twenty three years he has been teaching civil engineering in government engineering colleges in tamil nadu. He has authored twenty three technical papers of which six are alo - from Amzon