Notes From Class
Notes From Class
Week 1: August 31. September 2 and 4, 2026.
In-person Instruction: August 31. September 2 and 4.
Case Study:
Jakarta is home to 10.9 million people and the capital city of Indonesia.
It is also the fastest sinking city in the world (sinking 10 inches per year in places).
Google: Jakarta sinking
Sinking Cities within US:
New Orleans, 2 inches per year;
Houston, 0.8 inches per year;
Virginia Beach, 12 inches in the past 50 years;
Miami, 12 inches in the past 100 years.
Week 2: September 9 and 11, 2026.
In-person Instruction: September 9 and 11
Week 3: September 14, 16, and 18, 2026.
In-person Instruction: September 14 and 16.
In-person Review/Homework Assistance: September 18.
Handout: Types of Trusses
Examples: Method of Joints , Method of Sections .
Handout: Analysis of Statically Determinate Structures
Handout: Truss Analysis Tutorial
Week 4: September 21, 23, and 25, 2026.
In-person Instruction: September 21 and 23.
In-person Review/Homework Assistance: September 25.
Unpack the zip file, then run the four test programs:
A few details:
# Initialize coefficients for matrix equations ... ");
nonodes = 3; # <--- no of nodes ...
maxterms = 2; # <--- max no terms in an equation of equilibrium ...
# Equilibrium and destination arrays ...
equilibrium = np.zeros(( 2*nonodes, maxterms ))
destination = np.zeros(( 2*nonodes, maxterms ))
# Node A ...
equilibrium[0][0] = 1 # < --- equilibrium in x direction ...
equilibrium[0][1] = 1
destination[0][0] = 1;
destination[0][1] = 4;
... etc ...
The abbreviated output is:
Matrix: Equilibrium Matrix: Destination row/col 1 2 row/col 1 2 1 1.00000e+00 1.00000e+00 1 1.00000e+00 4.00000e+00 2 1.00000e+00 1.00000e+00 2 2.00000e+00 5.00000e+00 3 1.00000e+00 7.07107e-01 3 1.00000e+00 3.00000e+00 4 7.07107e-01 1.00000e+00 4 3.00000e+00 6.00000e+00 5 -7.07107e-01 0.00000e+00 5 3.00000e+00 0.00000e+00 6 1.00000e+00 7.07107e-01 6 2.00000e+00 3.00000e+00
Assembly of matrix A from equilibrium and destination arrays ...
for row in range(2*nonodes):
for col in range(maxterms):
eitem = equilibrium[row][col];
ditem = int( destination[row][col] );
if eitem != 0 or ditem != 0:
A[row][ditem-1] = eitem;
Week 5: September 28 and 30. October 2, 2026.
In-person Instruction: September 28 and 30.
Homework Assistance: October 2.
Week 6: October 5, 7, and 9, 2026.
In-person Instruction: October 5.
In-person Homework Assistance: October 9.
Solutions to Midterm I Exam: Spring 2024 (pdf), Fall 2024 (pdf), Spring 2026 (pdf).
Three questions covering computation of indeterminacy, support reactions,
bending moment diagrams, tensile and compressive element-level forces.
NOTE: You have 12 hrs to complete and return the exam.
Please make sure your name and e-mail are clearly written on the first page.
Open book and open notes. University rules on academic integrity apply.
Good luck!
Instructions for Submitting Midterm I: See details on ENCE353 home page.
Week 7: October 12, 14, and 16, 2026.
In-person Instruction: October 14 and 16.
Change of topic: for the next two weeks we will cover analysis of arch
structures followed by analysis of cable structures.
See, in particular, the notes and video on parabolic arches -- definitely the coolest part of this course --
and links (below) to recently developed projects.
Solutions to Homework 3 (pdf).
Rough timeline:
There is a nice write-up of the history and development of the arch on Wikipedia.
The principal architect, Eero Saarinen, also designed the terminal building at Washington Dulles Airport.
Timeline:
Looking beyond the Washington DC region, arch bridges are definitely in vogue, e.g.,
Week 8: October 19, 21 and 23, 2026.
In-person Instruction: October 19 and 21.
In-person Homework Session: October 23.
As noted above, architect Eero Saarinen worked on the design of Dulles Airport during the 1950s, some 20-odd
years after completing the St. Louis Arch. You can see the influences of his previous work
in the shape of the cantilever supports.
What's really amazing is that this structure was designed without the aid of modern computational analysis
tools (i.e., no Matlab), relying instead on "first principles of engineering" (equilibrium)
and the construction of small-scale models.
See, in particular, slides 12-15 and 22-24 of this
handout .
Slide 24 shows that foundation level of the structure essentially acts as a huge deep beam,
with tensile forces at the lower-most sections of the ground slab carried by reinforcing/prestressed cables.
Week 10: October 26, 28 and 30, 2026.
In-person Instruction: October 26 and 28.
In-person Review/Homework Session: October 30.
Week 11: November 2, 4 and 6, 2026.
In-person Instruction: November 2 and 4.
In-person Review/Homework Session: November 6.
Just read Section 6.1 to see the connection between
energy methods (specifically kinetic and potential energy) and
the derivation of equations of motion from applications in physics.
Solutions to Homework 4 (pdf)
Week 12: November 9, 11 and 13, 2026.
In-person Midterm Review: November 9.
Solutions to Midterm II Exam, Spring 2020 (pdf)
Solutions to Midterm II Exam, Spring 2023 (pdf)
Solutions to Midterm II Exam, Spring 2024 (pdf)
Solutions to Midterm II Exam, Spring 2025 (pdf).
NOTE: You have 12 hrs to complete and return the exam. Please make sure your name and e-mail are clearly written on the first page.
Open book and open notes. University rules on academic integrity apply.
Three questions covering principle of superposition,
and computation of displacements via integration of
beam differential equations and/or moment area.
Instructions for Submitting Midterm II: See details on ENCE353 home page.
No in-person instruction today -- look over the solutions to the midterm exam.
We will contnue our story on enery methods on Monday morning ...
Week 13: November 16, 18 and 20, 2026.
In-person Instruction: November 16 and 18.
In-person Homework Assistance: November 20.
Week 14: November 23, 2024.
In-person Instruction: November 23
Solutions to Homework 5 (pdf).
Week 15: November 30. December 2 and 4 2026.
In-person Instruction: November 30 and December 2, 2026.
In-person Homework Assistance: December 4.
Week 16: December 7, 9 and 11, 2026.
In-person Instruction: December 7 and 9, 2026.
In-person Review: December 11.
FINAL EXAM:
NOTE: You have 24 hrs to complete and return the exam.
Please make sure your name is clearly written on the first page.
Open book and open notes. University rules on academic integrity apply.
Five questions: Question 1 is compulsory. Do three of the remaining four questions.
Topics include: Moment area, virtual forces, virtual displacements, force method
and arch and cable structures.
Cross out the question that you do not want marked.
Submitting the Final Exam: See details on ENCE353 home page.
Last Modified: August 11, 2026,
Copyright © 2026, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland.