Strength of materials is that branch of engineering concerned with the deformation and disruption of solids when forces other than changes in position or equilibrium are acting upon them. The development of our understanding of the strength of materials has enabled engineers to establish the forces which can safely be imposed on structure or components, or to choose materials appropriate to the necessary dimensions of structures and components which have to withstand given loads without suffering effects deleterious to their proper functioning. This excellent historical survey of the strength of materials with many references to the theories of elasticity and structures is based on an extensive series of lectures delivered by the author at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. Timoshenko explores the early roots of the discipline from the great monuments and pyramids of ancient Egypt through the temples, roads, and fortifications of ancient Greece and Rome. The author fixes the formal beginning of the modern science of the strength of materials with the publications of Galileo's book, "Two Sciences," and traces the rise and development as well as industrial and commercial applications of the fledgling science from the seventeenth century through the twentieth century. Timoshenko fleshes out the bare bones of mathematical theory with lucid demonstrations of important equations and brief biographies of highly influential mathematicians, including: Euler, Lagrange, Navier, Thomas Young, Saint-Venant, Franz Neumann, Maxwell, Kelvin, Rayleigh, Klein, Prandtl, and many others. These theories, equations, and biographies are further enhanced by clear discussions of the development of engineering and engineering education in Italy, France, Germany, England, and elsewhere. 245 figures.

This book examines the theoretical foundations underpinning the field of strength of materials/theory of elasticity, beginning from the origins of the modern theory of elasticity. While the focus is on the advances made within Italy during the nineteenth century, these achievements are framed within the overall European context. The vital contributions of Italian mathematicians, mathematical physicists and engineers in respect of the theory of elasticity, continuum mechanics, structural mechanics, the principle of least work and graphical methods in engineering are carefully explained and discussed. The book represents a work of historical research that primarily comprises original contributions and summaries of work published in journals. It is directed at those graduates in engineering, but also in architecture, who wish to achieve a more global and critical view of the discipline and will also be invaluable for all scholars of the history of mechanics.

Accessible text covers deformation and stress, derivation of equations of finite elasticity, and formulation of infinitesimal elasticity with application to two- and three-dimensional static problems and elastic waves. 1980 edition.

This book is intended to be an introduction to elasticity theory. It is as sumed that the student, before reading this book, has had courses in me chanics (statics, dynamics) and strength of materials (mechanics of mate rials). It is written at a level for undergraduate and beginning graduate engineering students in mechanical, civil, or aerospace engineering. As a background in mathematics, readers are expected to have had courses in ad vanced calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations. Our experience in teaching elasticity theory to engineering students leads us to believe that the course must be problem-solving oriented. We believe that formulation and solution of the problems is at the heart of elasticity theory. 1 Of course orientation to problem-solving philosophy does not exclude the need to study fundamentals. By fundamentals we mean both mechanical concepts such as stress, deformation and strain, compatibility conditions, constitu tive relations, energy of deformation, and mathematical methods, such as partial differential equations, complex variable and variational methods, and numerical techniques. We are aware of many excellent books on elasticity, some of which are listed in the References. If we are to state what differentiates our book from other similar texts we could, besides the already stated problem-solving ori entation, list the following: study of deformations that are not necessarily small, selection of problems that we treat, and the use of Cartesian tensors only.

This book traces the evolution of theory of structures and strength of materials - the development of the geometrical thinking of the Renaissance to become the fundamental engineering science discipline rooted in classical mechanics. Starting with the strength experiments of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo, the author examines the emergence of individual structural analysis methods and their formation into theory of structures in the 19th century. For the first time, a book of this kind outlines the development from classical theory of structures to the structural mechanics and computational mechanics of the 20th century. In doing so, the author has managed to bring alive the differences between the players with respect to their engineering and scientific profiles and personalities, and to create an understanding for the social context. Brief insights into common methods of analysis, backed up by historical details, help the reader gain an understanding of the history of structural mechanics from the standpoint of modern engineering practice. A total of 175 brief biographies of important personalities in civil and structural engineering as well as structural mechanics plus an extensive bibliography round off this work.