Continuum Mechanics Through the Twentieth Century

Continuum Mechanics Through the Twentieth Century: A Concise Historical Perspective (Solid Mechanics and Its Applications)

This overview of the development of continuum mechanics throughout the twentieth century is unique and ambitious. Utilizing a historical perspective, it combines an exposition on the technical progress made in the field and a marked interest in the role played by remarkable individuals and scientific schools and institutions on a rapidly evolving social background. It underlines the newly raised technical questions and their answers, and the ongoing reflections on the bases of continuum mechanics associated, or in competition, with other branches of the physical sciences, including thermodynamics. The emphasis is placed on the development of a more realistic modeling of deformable solids and the exploitation of new mathematical tools. The book presents a balanced appraisal of advances made in various parts of the world. The author contributes his technical expertise, personal recollections, and international experience to this general overview, which is very informative albeit concise.

Table of Contents

1 The Land Clearers and the ‘‘Classics’’
2 Transition to the 20th Century
3 Rheology and Nonlinear Elasticity
4 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Spirit
5 Axiomatization and Thermo-Mechanics
6 The British School of Elasticity, Plasticity and Defects: Applied Mathematics
7 The French Masters
8 The Polish Strength
9 German Revival in Continuum Mechanics After WWII
10 European Miscellanei and Asia
11 The Soviet and Russian Schools
12 Continuum Mechanics and Electromagnetism
13 Generalized Continuum Mechanics: Various Paths
14 Configurational Mechanics
15 Relativistic Continuum Mechanics: A 20th Century Adventure
16 Epilogue
Appendix: Selected Biographies of Mechanicians
Index