Announcing: New Open Textbook “Strength of Materials”

by Anita Walz, posted on October 5, 2026

The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of Strength of Materials (2026), by James K. Lord, Amy Richardson, Sneha Davison, and David A. Dillard.

Strength of Materials offers a peer-reviewed introduction to vital foundational engineering concepts such as internal loading, stress, strain, material properties, and more. When everyday objects and structures experience too much force, they can break or deform beyond recognition. This book explains why this occurs and how engineers can prevent it from happening to their designs.

Available in multiple formats, the 414-page open textbook, accompanying problem set, and homework system are intended for use in a one-semester introductory undergraduate Mechanics of Materials courses. Mechanics of Materials is an important foundation for students in several disciplines, including mechanical, civil, aerospace, and materials engineering. It is typically completed early in the core engineering curriculum, following Statics, and serves as a prerequisite to more advanced Solid Mechanics courses.

Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook are asked to please help us understand your use of the material by filling out this form https://bit.ly/interest_strengthofmaterials. This enables us to contact you regarding developments to our homework system project, additional resources, and to build documentation which aids us in advocating for future projects.

This textbook and its accompanying materials are intended for degree-seeking, undergraduate students in a broad range of engineering disciplines including mechanical, civil, aerospace, and materials engineering. The authors have experience teaching this content in various types of institutions including research universities to two-year community colleges. As such, the material is designed to be relevant to instruction at the widest range of educational settings. It is suitable for high-enrollment multi-section courses and smaller intensive courses alike. This text covers fundamental skills and concepts that engineering students will rely on throughout their studies and their careers.

The book and accompanying problem sets are authored by a team of professors at Virginia Tech in consultation and with contributions from experts who teach undergraduate Mechanics of Materials at a variety of institutions of higher education. Access to the solution manual is available by contacting Dr. Grohs jrgrohs@vt.edu or the lead author, Dr. Lord jklord@vt.edu.

The book is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license (CC BY NC-SA 4.0).

About the Problem Set

The problem set for Strength of Materials is a 350+ peer and student-reviewed set of interactive problem exercises (CC BY NC-SA 4.0) aligned with Strength of Materials. These problems follow the sequence of chapters in the textbook and can serve as both homework and practice problems for learners. Instructor solutions available upon request from jrgrohs@vt.edu. We are actively piloting Canvas integration of the problem exercises. If you are interested in receiving an update regarding the Canvas-integrated system, please report your interest by completing this form.

About the Book – Table of Contents

1. Statics Review
2. Stress
3. Strain
4. Mechanical Properties of Materials
5. Axial Loading
6. Torsion
7. Beams
8. Geometric Properties
9. Bending Loads
10. Shear Loading in Beams
11. Beam Deflection
12. Stress Transformation
13. Thin-Walled Pressure Vessels
14. Combined Loads
15. Columns
Appendix A: Geometric Properties of Standard Beams
Appendix B: Slope and Deflection Tables
Appendix C: Material Properties
Appendix D: Units and Order of Magnitude
Appendix E: Centroids and Second Moment of Area for Common Shapes

How to Access the Book

Interactive, accessible, online version: https://engineeringmechanicsoer.github.io/StrengthBook/index.html

PDF, epub, online version, and additional resources: https://hdl.handle.net/10919/118747 or order a paperback, full-color copy.

ISBN (PDF): 978-1-962841-35-1
ISBN (HTML): 978-1-962841-36-8
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-962841-34-4
ISBN (print): 978-1-962841-33-7

The book is also listed in the Open Textbook Library, OER Commons, VIVA Open, and Merlot.

About the Book Authors

James K. Lord

James Lord is a Collegiate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he has taught foundational mechanics courses since 2014, prior to which he taught a variety of courses at Cal Poly, SLO. Born and raised in England, he holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD in Biomechanical Engineering from Newcastle University. He is active in the American Society for Engineering Education and has won numerous teaching awards. He is passionate about removing barriers to education and has previously contributed to other free mechanics resources, including the popular Engineering Statics: Open and Interactive. After a decade of watching students spend $100+ on a textbook for his course he thought “I could write one of those.” So he did.

Amy Richardson

Amy Richardson is a research scientist in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Before joining Virginia Tech, she spent over 15 years as a community college faculty member, teaching mechanics courses every semester. Amy holds a BS and MS in Civil Engineering, as well as a PhD in Engineering Education. She is passionate about fostering equity in the classroom so that every student has the opportunity to succeed. Contributing to this OER textbook is her way of making foundational engineering mechanics more accessible to all—one small step toward removing barriers in engineering education.

Sneha Davison

Sneha Davison is an advanced instructor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. She also completed her BS (1996), MS (1999), and PhD (2003), all in Engineering Science and Mechanics, from Virginia Tech. She has taught multiple mechanics courses every semester since the fall of 2016. These courses primarily include Statics, Dynamics, Deforms, and Thermodynamics. Beyond teaching in person, she feels that contributing to this OER textbook is the perfect way to reach more students and put the insight she has gained about how to communicate complicated concepts to students to good use.

David A. Dillard

David A. Dillard is the Adhesive and Sealant Science Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. He has co-authored over 210 refereed publications and regularly teaches mechanics courses. A recipient of university, national, and international awards, primarily for his research in adhesives, polymers, fracture mechanics, and viscoelasticity, he has been heavily involved in proposing and developing a novel problem-solving platform based on inadequacies he saw in publisher virtual homework feedback for a mechanics of materials course. Having taught this topic for many years, including in-person, virtual, and hybrid formats, he is very interested in seeing an open-source book for this important engineering course.

The team gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Kurt Gramoll in allowing us to adapt many of his original images and examples for this work.

Book Development and Editorial Team

Anita Walz, Open Education Initiative, University Libraries, Virginia Tech
Kindred Grey, Virginia Tech Publishing & Press, University Libraries, Virginia Tech

About the Problem Set Team

The team gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Kurt Gramoll. Many of the problems were adapted from Kurt Gramoll’s collection in the Apple Store and Google Play and released with permission under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.

Problem Set Editor and Content Coordinator

James K. Lord, Associate Collegiate Professor, Virginia Tech

Authors of Problems

Kurt Gramoll, Emeritus Professor, University of Oklahoma

James K. Lord, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech

Chris Galitz, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech

Frances Davis, Department of Engineering, Brightpoint Community College

Sneha Davison. Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech

Richard Kent, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia

Nina Lord, Department of Engineering, North Virginia Community College

Amy Richardson, Department of Engineering, North Virginia Community College / Engineering Education, Virginia Tech

Joao Soares, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University

Sevak Tahmasian, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech

Figure Design of Problems

Kindred Grey, Graphic Design and Production Specialist, University Libraries, Virginia Tech

Ben (Doyoon) Lee, Student, Virginia Tech

Software Editor

Jacob Grohs, Associate Professor, Engineering Education, Virginia Tech

Review, Problem Redevelopment, and Programming

James K. Lord, Associate Collegiate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech

Olivia Ryan, Doctoral Student, Engineering Education, Virginia Tech

Benjamin E. Chaback, Doctoral Student, Engineering Education, Virginia Tech

Layout and Design

Kindred Grey, Graphic Design and Production Specialist, University Libraries, Virginia Tech

Project Coordination and Management

Anita Walz, Associate Professor, University Libraries, Virginia Tech

Project support

These works are published by Virginia Tech Press. Publication of these work are made possible in part by

• – VIVA’s Open and Affordable Course Content Program, which provided funding and technical support
• – Grant funds and technical assistance the Open Education Initiative at the University Libraries. OEI provides development assistance and financial support to Virginia Tech faculty who wish to use, create, or adapt openly licensed teaching materials to support student learning,
• – Virginia Tech’s Department of Engineering Education, which provided funding and technical assistance

Suggested citations

James K. Lord, Amy Richardson, Sneha Davison, and David A. Dillard, Strength of Materials (Virginia Tech Press, 2026). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://hdl.handle.net/10919/118747.

James Lord and Jacob Grohs, eds. (2024). Problem Set for Strength of Materials. (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2024) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://engineeringmechanicsoer.github.io/StrengthOfMaterialsExercises.

How to Receive Updates

Sign up to receive updates regarding new releases by completing the interest form at: https://bit.ly/interest_strengthofmaterials

Accessibility

Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Open Education Initiative is committed to continuous improvement regarding accessibility. The text, images, headings, and links in the PDF and HTML versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Please contact publishing@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible.

License

Unless otherwise noted, this work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike (CC BY NC-SA 4.0) license which allows adaptation and redistribution with attribution for uses which are not primarily commercial as long as appropriate credit is given to the creator and new creations are licensed under the same terms. See the license terms and recommended practices for attribution for additional information.