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La mecanique des milieux continus et le calcul des structures 1977
BOOK ASSESSMENT
OF IMPAIRED
Noble. London: 0.12.520050.1.
HEARING:
639
REVIEWS
A CRITIQUE
AND
METHOD 1978, W. 6. pp., price $13.65. ISBN
A NEW
Academic Press Inc. (London) Ltd. 348+xi
This book, as its title suggests, has two main content areas. First is an excellent review of the past and present position concerning assessment of hearing, principally for the purpose of evlauation of the degree of hearing impairment and handicap in compensation cases. The review brings a refreshingly critical outlook to the many problems in auditory assessment and has a wealth of references, in total nearly 400. The author then goes on to “A redirection in hearing loss and handicap assessment” in which he reports the development of self-report scales in general and of his own “Hearing Measurement Scale” (Noble and Atherley, 1970). There is no doubt that the latter is a very valuable research tool, but one cannot avoid some reservations about its applications in the compensation and litigation fields. The first question concerns the philosophy of awarding compensation according to the degree to which a person states that he is handicapped. Of two people with the same impairment, does the complainer really deserve more compensation than the stoic? The second reservation concerns deliberate exaggeration of deafness for purposes of gaining more compensation than is strictly deserved. On this point, Noble naively says “it is my contention that faking will only occur when the respondent feels that the situation is not designed with his or her interests in mind. Faking in this test, as in others, is inseparable from the whole political context in which testing is carried out”. In his statement, he seems to overlook the obvious motivation for faking provided by opportunity of financial advantage; surely, such faking depends more on personal greed than on politics? Putting those two reservations aside, the book provides a first class review of the subject as a whole, together with an explanation in some detail of the author’s self-reporting method of assessment of auditory handicap. The book deserves a place on the shelf of all departments concerned with research or training of professionals in the field of deafness, and especially those concerned with compensation for occupational deafness. It already has a valued place on the bookshelf of the reviewer. R. A. A. COLES
LA
MECANIQUE
DES
MILIEUX
CONTINUS
ET
LE
CALCUL
DES
STRUCTURES
1977,
R. Valid. Paris: Editions Eyrolles. 378 pp, price 115 FF. (In French.) The first chapter of this book consists of a general, mathematical treatment of the mechanics of continuous media. However, most of it is concerned with solid media. The second chapter describes the finite element displacement method of analysis. Most of the material deals with static, linear elastic analysis, but the last section briefly refers to the use of the method for solving problems in fluids, heat conduction, magnetism and electrostatics. The chapter deals with membrane, plate bending, shell, solid, axisymmetric shell and solid elements. The depth of treatment does vary from element to element, Chapter 3 describes various variational principles of linear elasticity such as the potential and complementary energy, Hu-Washizu and Hellinger-Reissner principles. Each principle is briefly stated and then the chapter ends with a section on applications. This turns out to be a theoretical discussion without practical applications. Chapter 4 deals with the vibration of linear elastic structures. Methods of deriving the equations of motion in discrete form are presented. Techniques for reducing the number of degrees of freedom, such as Guyan reduction and sub-structure analysis, are discussed. Finally, methods of
640
BOOK
REVIEWS
predicting the free vibration characteristics of a structure and its response to harmonic, periodic and random loads are presented. Chapter 5 considers the effect of geometrical and material non-linearities. Discretization of the equations using finite element methods is discussed and methods of solving the resulting equations, for both static and dynamic problems, are presented. The general theory of thin shells is presented in Chapter 6. There is a section on shells of revolution and the final section discusses various papers on shell finite elements. The book, therefore, consists of a brief survey of the mathematics of various linear, non-linear, static or dynamic problems in structural analysis. The main method of solution presented is the finite element method. There are very few figures and no practical applications. There is, though, a comprehensive list of references. M. PETYT
VIBRATION 1978 (Second edition), R. E. D. Bishop. Cambridge University Press. 164 +ix pp., price $9.50 A H/C, f3.95 A P/B.
The first edition of this book (see my review Journal of Sound and Vibration 3 (3), p. 524, 1966) is based on the series of Christmas Lectures delivered by Professor Bishop at the Royal Institution in 1962. At that time I wrote that the book discusses many of the vibration problems which face engineers every day in a language which can be understood by a layman. Not a single differential equation appeared in the whole book. The ideas, which were introduced systematically, were well illustrated by photographs and line drawings. In this second edition there are a few changes to the material of the first edition and two additional sections have been added. The anthology of verse which was used to head each chapter in the first edition has been replaced by selections from W.S. Gilbert to give more uniformity to the style! The first section of new material describes the behaviour of ships in waves and the second new section describes the response of structures to transient excitation which is not impulsive in nature. I strongly recommend the book to practising vibration engineers who are required to explain their problems, remedies and results to eager sixth formers or doubting Managing Directors. B. L. CLARKSON
OF IMPAIRED
Noble. London: 0.12.520050.1.
HEARING:
639
REVIEWS
A CRITIQUE
AND
METHOD 1978, W. 6. pp., price $13.65. ISBN
A NEW
Academic Press Inc. (London) Ltd. 348+xi
This book, as its title suggests, has two main content areas. First is an excellent review of the past and present position concerning assessment of hearing, principally for the purpose of evlauation of the degree of hearing impairment and handicap in compensation cases. The review brings a refreshingly critical outlook to the many problems in auditory assessment and has a wealth of references, in total nearly 400. The author then goes on to “A redirection in hearing loss and handicap assessment” in which he reports the development of self-report scales in general and of his own “Hearing Measurement Scale” (Noble and Atherley, 1970). There is no doubt that the latter is a very valuable research tool, but one cannot avoid some reservations about its applications in the compensation and litigation fields. The first question concerns the philosophy of awarding compensation according to the degree to which a person states that he is handicapped. Of two people with the same impairment, does the complainer really deserve more compensation than the stoic? The second reservation concerns deliberate exaggeration of deafness for purposes of gaining more compensation than is strictly deserved. On this point, Noble naively says “it is my contention that faking will only occur when the respondent feels that the situation is not designed with his or her interests in mind. Faking in this test, as in others, is inseparable from the whole political context in which testing is carried out”. In his statement, he seems to overlook the obvious motivation for faking provided by opportunity of financial advantage; surely, such faking depends more on personal greed than on politics? Putting those two reservations aside, the book provides a first class review of the subject as a whole, together with an explanation in some detail of the author’s self-reporting method of assessment of auditory handicap. The book deserves a place on the shelf of all departments concerned with research or training of professionals in the field of deafness, and especially those concerned with compensation for occupational deafness. It already has a valued place on the bookshelf of the reviewer. R. A. A. COLES
LA
MECANIQUE
DES
MILIEUX
CONTINUS
ET
LE
CALCUL
DES
STRUCTURES
1977,
R. Valid. Paris: Editions Eyrolles. 378 pp, price 115 FF. (In French.) The first chapter of this book consists of a general, mathematical treatment of the mechanics of continuous media. However, most of it is concerned with solid media. The second chapter describes the finite element displacement method of analysis. Most of the material deals with static, linear elastic analysis, but the last section briefly refers to the use of the method for solving problems in fluids, heat conduction, magnetism and electrostatics. The chapter deals with membrane, plate bending, shell, solid, axisymmetric shell and solid elements. The depth of treatment does vary from element to element, Chapter 3 describes various variational principles of linear elasticity such as the potential and complementary energy, Hu-Washizu and Hellinger-Reissner principles. Each principle is briefly stated and then the chapter ends with a section on applications. This turns out to be a theoretical discussion without practical applications. Chapter 4 deals with the vibration of linear elastic structures. Methods of deriving the equations of motion in discrete form are presented. Techniques for reducing the number of degrees of freedom, such as Guyan reduction and sub-structure analysis, are discussed. Finally, methods of
640
BOOK
REVIEWS
predicting the free vibration characteristics of a structure and its response to harmonic, periodic and random loads are presented. Chapter 5 considers the effect of geometrical and material non-linearities. Discretization of the equations using finite element methods is discussed and methods of solving the resulting equations, for both static and dynamic problems, are presented. The general theory of thin shells is presented in Chapter 6. There is a section on shells of revolution and the final section discusses various papers on shell finite elements. The book, therefore, consists of a brief survey of the mathematics of various linear, non-linear, static or dynamic problems in structural analysis. The main method of solution presented is the finite element method. There are very few figures and no practical applications. There is, though, a comprehensive list of references. M. PETYT
VIBRATION 1978 (Second edition), R. E. D. Bishop. Cambridge University Press. 164 +ix pp., price $9.50 A H/C, f3.95 A P/B.
The first edition of this book (see my review Journal of Sound and Vibration 3 (3), p. 524, 1966) is based on the series of Christmas Lectures delivered by Professor Bishop at the Royal Institution in 1962. At that time I wrote that the book discusses many of the vibration problems which face engineers every day in a language which can be understood by a layman. Not a single differential equation appeared in the whole book. The ideas, which were introduced systematically, were well illustrated by photographs and line drawings. In this second edition there are a few changes to the material of the first edition and two additional sections have been added. The anthology of verse which was used to head each chapter in the first edition has been replaced by selections from W.S. Gilbert to give more uniformity to the style! The first section of new material describes the behaviour of ships in waves and the second new section describes the response of structures to transient excitation which is not impulsive in nature. I strongly recommend the book to practising vibration engineers who are required to explain their problems, remedies and results to eager sixth formers or doubting Managing Directors. B. L. CLARKSON