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From the forward by Ekkehard Ramm:
This “history of theory of structures” could only have been written by an expert, an engineer who knows the discipline inside out. Engineering scientists getting to grips with their own history is a rare thing. But this is one such lucky instance. This fully revised English edition, which explores international developments in greater depth, follows on from the highly successful German edition. We should be very grateful to Dr. Kurrer, and also “his” publisher, Ernst & Sohn, for this treatise.
—Ekkehard Ramm, Professor of Structural Mechanics, University of Stuttgart
From the author’s Preface:
Encouraged by the engineering profession’s positive response to the first edition of this book, which appeared in German only under the title of Geschichte der Baustatik in 2002, and the repeated requests for an English edition, two years ago I set myself the task of revising, expanding and updating the book. Although this new version still contains much of the original edition unaltered, the content now goes much further, in terms of quantity and quality. My aim was not only to take account of the research findings of the intervening years, but also to include the historical devel- opment of modern numerical methods of structural analysis and struc- tural mechanics; further, I wanted to clarify more rigorously the relation- ship between the formation of structural analysis theories and progress in construction engineering. The history of the theory of spatial frame- works, plus plate, shell and stability theory, to name just a few examples, have therefore been given special attention because these theories played an important role in the evolution of the design language of lightweight steel, reinforced concrete, aircraft and ship structures. Without doubt, the finite element method (FEM) – a child of structural mechanics – is one of the most important intellectual technologies of the second half of the 20th century. I have therefore presented the historico-logical sources of FEM, their development and establishment in this new edition.
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