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Engineering Mechanics of Deformable Solids: A Presentation

with Exercises
Sanjay Govindjee

Published in print: 2012 Published Online:

Publisher: Oxford University Press
December 2013
DOI: 10.1093/
ISBN: 9780199651641 eISBN: 9780191775017 acprof:oso/9780199651641.001.0001
Item type: book

This book covers the essential elements of engineering mechanics for

mechanical elements in tension-compression, torsion, and bending. Its
approach emphasizes a fundamental bottom-up approach to the subject
for a concise and uncluttered presentation. Each problem class is firmly
rooted in its underlying kinematic assumption, and the concepts of
equilibrium and material response are carefully separated. The technical
theory is connected to the three-dimensional theory with a careful
emphasis on kinematic assumptions and the selected use of material
models for plastic response, as well as composite or inhomogeneous
material distributions. Buckling phenomena and the principles of
stationary potential energy and stationary complementary potential
energy are covered in detail for both exact as well as approximate
solutions. The principles of virtual work virtual displacements and
virtual forces are treated, and their relation to potential energy
methods as well as the basic elements of kinematics, equilibrium, and
material constitutive response are fully discussed.

Two Traditions: Mathematical Physics and Technical Mechanics

David Bloor

in The Enigma of the Aerofoil: Rival Theories in Aerodynamics, 1909-1930

Published in print: 2011 Published Online:
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
September 2013
DOI: 10.7208/
ISBN: 9780226060941 eISBN: 9780226060934 chicago/9780226060934.003.0006
Item type: chapter

This chapter presents the reasons advanced against the circulation

theory of lift proposed by non-engineers who worked in the British,
and particularly the Cambridge, tradition of mathematical physics.
If the objections were the expressions of a disciplinary standpoint,
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located at a specific time and place, then perhaps the resistance to the
circulatory theory would be explicable as a clash of cultures, institutions,
and practices. Such an explanation would not imply any devaluation of
the reasons that were advanced against the circulatory theory. It would
not be premised on the assumption that these reasons were not the real
reasons for the resistance. On the contrary, the intention would be to
take the objections against the theory in full seriousness and to probe
further into them. The aim of this chapter is to outline a theory that could
explain the negative character of the British response to Lanchester's
theory.

The Enigma of the Aerofoil: Rival Theories in Aerodynamics,

1909-1930
David Bloor

Published in print: 2011 Published Online:

Publisher: University of Chicago Press
September 2013
DOI: 10.7208/
ISBN: 9780226060941 eISBN: 9780226060934 chicago/9780226060934.001.0001
Item type: book

Why do aircraft fly? How do their wings support them? In the early years
of aviation, there was an intense dispute between British and German
experts over the question of why and how an aircraft wing provides lift.
The British, under the leadership of the great Cambridge mathematical
physicist Lord Rayleigh, produced highly elaborate investigations of
the nature of discontinuous flow, while the Germans, following Ludwig
Prandtl in Gottingen, relied on the tradition called technical mechanics
to explain the flow of air around a wing. Much of the basis of modern
aerodynamics emerged from this remarkable episode, yet it has never
been subject to a detailed historical and sociological analysis. This
book probes a neglected aspect of this important period in the history
of aviation. It draws upon papers by the participantstheir restricted
technical reports, meeting minutes, and personal correspondence, much
of which has never before been publishedand reveals the impact that
the divergent mathematical traditions of Cambridge and Gottingen had
on this great debate. The author also addresses why the British, even
after discovering the failings of their own theory, remained resistant
to the German circulation theory for more than a decade. The result
is essential reading for anyone studying the history, philosophy, or
sociology of science or technologyand for all those intrigued by flight.

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