The idea of writing this book came up one night while having dinner with Ventura at the Crocodile Cafe in Pasadena. This was really a joint project, that could have turned into a nightmare without her support, encouragement, and expertise in personal computers. For all these things, and for tolerating my sometimes single-minded attention, I am very grateful to her. I am also very much indebted to six good friends, Paul Burridge, Mladen Chargin, Gary Dilley, Carl Hennrich, Hector Jensen and Mark Miller, who read the entire manuscript of this book and made many useful suggestions. I also want to thank Burt Alperson for his guidance and advice during the preparation of this book. Finally, I thank the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Southern California for the support provided during the course of this project, and my students of all these years for asking tough questions. Contents Introduction 1 Basic MSC/NASTRAN concepts 2 PARTl Statics Problem 1 7 1. 1 Statement of the problem 7 1. 2 Cards introduced 7 1. 3 MSC/NASTRAN formulation 7 1. 4 Input Data Deck 8 1. 5 Results 11 Problem 2 27 2. 1 Statement of the problem 27 2. 2 Cards introduced 27 2. 3 MSC/NASTRAN formulation 27 2. 4 Input Data Deck 27 2. 5 Results 28 Problem 3 37 3. 1 Statement of the problem 37 3. 2 Cards introduced 37 3. 3 MSC/NASTRAN formulation 37 3. 4 Input Data Deck 37 3.