Energy Methods in Material Mechanics is generally arranged after the stress and strain analysis in most material mechanics books.It is closely linked to courses of structural mechanics and elastic mechanics for undergraduate students.This paper summarizes four typical class teaching ways for the energy methods.A comprehensive review of the energy methods is first provided.Then,comparison of the different teaching ways and their applicability to different undergraduate majors are provided in order to arrange more suitable teaching contents.
material mechanicsenergy methodsCastigliano's theoremprinciple of virtual displacementunit-load method