After successful completion of the course, students are able to

• summarise fundamentals of Lagrangian mechanics;
• describe classical mechanics of strings and beams;
  
• constitute the nonlinear theory of rods in space;
  
• discuss buckling problems;
  
• explain nonlinear deformations of classical rods;
  
• analyse and solve elastic, thermo- and piezoelastic problems using the symbolic program Mathematica.

After a preliminary introduction into vector and tensor calculus, the fundamentals of Lagrangian mechanics are reviewed. Then we discuss the classical mechanics of strings and beams. Based on the differential geometry of lines in spaces the nonlinear theory of rods in space is introduced, reduced to the linear theory and buckling problems are considered. Nonlinear deformations of classical rods, both for plane problems and for problems in space, are studied, analyzed and solved using the symbolic program Mathematica. Besides purely elastic problems, thermo- and piezoelastic problems are treated in this lecture.

During the lecture the theoretical parts and models are explained and afterwards applied on lecture related exercises.

Grading is based on the calculated exercises and the participation in class.