Historical Background

and Development
Introduction
The attraction and challenges of structures of extreme
geometric forma (e.g. slender beams)
* Accurate prediction of behavior
* Most economic utilization of structural members or
systems

Strength of Materials
Egyptians: developed empirical rules
Greeks: advanced the art (e.g. Archimedes 287 – 312
BC
* Rigorous proof of the conditions of equilibrium of
a lever
* determining centers of gravity of bodies
The Romans
Great builders of monuments, roads, bridges,
fortifications

5th - 15th Century Middle Ages:

Most of the Engineering knowledge
accumulated by the Greeks and Romans lost
in this period

14th – 16th Century:

Renaissance and re-discovery and revival of
science
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 -1519)
Artist, scientist and engineer

“mechanics is the paradise of mathematical

science because here we come to the fruits
of mathematics“

• Thrust produced by an arch

• Experimental studies on strength of
structural materials
Galileo (1564 – 1642)

• Hydrostatic balance for determining densities

• Centre of gravity of a solid body
• Experiments on falling bodies
• Astronomical discoveries
• Tensile and bending tests on beams,
cantilevers
Roberk Hooke (1635 – 1703)
• Microscopy and universal gravitation
• Hookes Law: linear relationship between
applied load and deformation

Mariotte (1620- 1684)

• Laws of impact (demonstrated using
balls suspended by threads)
• Conversion of momentum
• Invented the ballistic pendulum
The Mathematicians Bernoulli
Two brothers Jacob (1654-1705) & Johann
(1667 – 1748) in Basel

Expanded the work on infinitesimal calculus

(started by Leibnitz 1646 -1716) for mechanics
and physics

Jacob: Deflection curve on elastic bars

Johann: Principle of virtual displacements
Daniel Bernoulli (1700 – 1782, Johann’s son)

• Differential equation governing lateral

vibrations of prismatic beams

• Bernoulli’s Theory: “Plan sections remain

plane in beam bending”
Leonhard Euler (b15 April 1707 in Basel, Switzerland, d 18
September 1783 in St Petersburg, Russia)

• Son of Paul Euler, a Protestant minister of

religion who had attended Maths classes
from Jacob Bernoulli at University of Basel
• Leonhard did not learn maths at school but
from his father
• His father wanted him to become a minister
and sent him to University of Basel at 14 years
of age
• There he met Johann Bernoulli who taught
him mathematics
Strength of Materials in the 18th Century

1) Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736 – 1813 AD):

Derived equations for determining the bending
of infinite number of buckling curves

2) Charles Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806 AD):

Theoretical discussions on bending of beams;
damping of torsional oscillations
3) Thomas Young (1773-1829AD):
• The notion of modulus of tension and
compression (Young’s Modulus, Modulus of
Elasticity)

• Analyzed stresses due to impact and gave

a method of calculating them for perfectly
elastic materials which follow Hooke’s law
up to fracture.
Strength of Materials in 19th/20th Century
1) Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953 AD):
• Doctoral thesis in 1899 on lateral buckling
(“Kipperscheinung”) of beams of narrow
rectangular cross sections bent in plane of
maximum flexural rigidity.
• Developed a technique later used in investigating
the elastic stability of thin walled members.

2) Anthony G M Michell (1870-1959AD):

• Solved simplest case of buckling in the case of pure
bending.
• Worked independent of Prandtl but came to similar
results.
3) Stephen Timoshenko (1878-1972AD):
• Theory of elastic stability.
• Stability Problems of the Theory of Elasticity
(publ. 1910)

4) Henrik Nylander ( ):
Torsional and lateral buckling of eccentrically
compressed I and T columns, 1949.
5) Ernst Chwalla (1901-1960AD):
Lateral torsional buckling of beams for double
symmetrical I sections, 1949

6) Others: Trahair, Galambos, Nethercot….