1

EVOLUTION OF MECHANICS
OF MATERIALS THROUGH
AGES

Submitted to: Dr. Asim Shehzad
Submitted by: Uzair Khaleeq uz Zaman
MS68-11-508
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
CEME, NUST


Date: 16-09-2012
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Summary
Mechanics of materials is a subject that deals with objects sustaining stresses and strains. The
objects can be under different types of loading; axial, transverse and torsional. The study of these
types of forces started way back in the time of Egyptians who built huge structures such as
temples, monuments and pyramids but no recordable detailed documents were available from
their era as to how they achieved such feats. The first concrete evidence available was put forth
by Archimedes who was then followed by big names such as Da Vinci, Galelio, Bernoulli,
Hooke and all the way to Timoshenko in the 20
th
century. The mechanics of materials as we see
today, has all its basics designed, manipulated, tested and postulated by
researchers/scientists/philosophers over centuries.














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Table of Contents
Title Page No.
1. Introduction..5
2. History of Mechanics of Materials...6
a) Archimedes.. 7
b) Da Vinci.. 8
c) Galelio . 8
d) Robert Hooke.. 9
e) Newton and Bernoulli 11
f) Euler....... 11
g) D Alemebert and Langrange. 12
h) Coulomb and Laplace......... 13
i) Poisson 13
j) Saint Venant............................................................ 13
k) Galerkin... 14
l) Timoshenko. 15
3. Conclusion... 15
4. References.........................16







4

List of Figures
Figure Page No.
Figure 1.5
Figure 2 6
Figure 3 7
Figure 4............ 8
Figure 5.............9
Figure 6............10
Figure 7............11
Figure 8............12
Figure 9............12
Figure 10..14










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1. Introduction

Mechanics of materials is the study of internal effects (stresses, strains and
displacements) caused by external loads (forces and moments) on a structure. In other
words, if we find these internal effects for all possible values of loads till the point of
fracture, we can have a complete and precise picture of the mechanical behaviour of
materials. Moreover, in broader terms, Mechanics of Materials determines strength,
deformation, stiffness and stability of structures. It links the fields of Statics and
Engineering as per the pictorial description below:














Figure 1. Subject Definition of Mechanics of Materials
History tells that Egyptians were able to erect huge structures such as pyramids, temples
and monuments but no concrete recordable evidence exists as to how they were able to
achieve this feat apart from some stone wall drawings. The Greeks later laid the
foundations for statics and Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) became the first person to devise
conditions of equilibrium on a lever and outline various methods to determine centres of
gravity of bodies. Ever since then, developments took place in the area of materials and
External Forces
/Moments
Reactions, Internal
Forces/Moments
STATIC
SS
Stresses (Normal,
Shear)


Deflections,
Deformations
(Rectilinear,
Angular)


Strains (Normal,
Shear)
Constitutive
Physical
Relations
MECHANICS OF
MATERIALS
Modeling
Analysis
Computer Simulation
Design
Testing / Diagnosis
Operation

ENGINEERING
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various philosophers/scientists/researchers came up with new theories, principles and
derivations that marked a new era in the development of mechanics of materials. Today,
Mechanics of Materials have a variety of applicable engineering fields; aeronautical and
aerospace engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing
engineering, mechanical engineering, and mining and mineral engineering.

2. History of Mechanics of Materials
The evolution of mechanics of materials is a step by step process which started from Egyptians
and continued as per the flow chart given below.

















Figure 2. Brief Timeline of Mechanics of Materials
Timoshenko
(1878-1972)
Archimedes
(287-212 B.C.)

Da Vinci
(1452-1519)
Galileo
(1564-1642)


Newton
(1642-1727)
Bernoulli
(1667-1748)
Hooke
(1635-1703)
Euler
(1707-1793)
D` Alembert
(1717-1783)
Lagrange
(1736-1813)
Coulomb
(1736-1806)
Laplace
(1749-1827)
Poisson
(1781-1840)
Saint Venant
(1797-1886)
Castigliano
(1847-1884)
Galerkin
(1871-1945)
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The text ahead would now briefly explain the evolution as per the flow chart
above.

a) Archimedes (287-212 B.C.)
Archimedes, following the footsteps of the Mathematician Euclid (famous for his
works on geometry in 300 B.C.), came up with a few axioms which were simple
abstractions of the everyday experience. He then derived the less obvious
properties from the studies on a step-by-step basis. His achievements revolve
around the concept of 'Lever' where a beam is supported at a point (known as a
fulcrum) from which the distances to the weights are measured and 'The center of
gravity' where weights are placed on the beam to find the point of equilibrium.

Archimedes postulated different observations from a series of experiments
performed and few of them are listed as under [1]:

1. Equal weights at equal distances are in equilibrium, and equal weights at
unequal distances are not in equilibrium but incline towards the weight
which is at the greater distance.
2. When equal and similar plane figures coincide if applied to one another,
there centers of gravity similarly coincide.
The first experimental procedure to determine Center of Gravity of Bodies is
shown in the figure below.













Figure 3. The circle, the rectangle and the parallelogram only remain at rest when the
supports are below their centers.

Similarly, Archimedes proved the existence of center of gravity for other shapes
and continuing with the lever principles proposed, he increased the complexity to
include shapes/structures like concave bodies, pierced bodies, washers supported
from above, three dimensional shapes and bodies with arbitrary shapes, etc. [4].
He also included Algebra and the Principles of Superposition to further
authenticate his results and proposed appropriate axioms. In all, Archimedes was
the person to set the footings on the road towards applications for later people to
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follow.


b) Da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo Da Vinci was the pioneer in the work done on the principle of moments
and devised methods to solve problems as shown below [5]:


Figure 4. Load bearing applications

He used the concepts derived earlier by Archimedes related to stability and
equilibrium and merged them with his studies to find the forces P and Q
(above) that would be required for the system to be in a balance. The concept of
virtual displacements (statics) was then used to solve applications which
included hoisting devices such as pulleys. Moreover, he was good at finding the
load capacity of arches and studied the strength of structures experimentally. In
terms of the study on the beams, he recommended a series of tests and him self
started with a beam that could carry a definite weight when supported at both
ends. The successive increase in the depths and widths was subsequently made by
him and accordingly the weight bearing capacity was noted till the time of
fracture.

Therefore, Da Vinci was the first person to make an attempt to not only apply
statics to find forces acting in members and columns of structures but to also find
the strength of materials.

c) Galileo (1564-1642)
Galileo spent a handsome amount of his time studying the work done by
Archimedes, Euclid and Da Vinci. In 1586, he made a hydrostatic balance for
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measuring the density of various substances and carried out different experiments
to determine the center of gravity in solid bodies. He also worked on falling
bodies and issued statements; all bodies fall from the same height in equal
times, in falling, the final velocities are proportional to time, and the spaces
fallen through are proportional to squares of the times [6]. These verdicts
opposed the Aristotelian theories but Galileo kept persistent.
Galileo, too, worked on the concept on virtual displacements as done earlier by
Da Vinci and worked on the effects of loads on beams and rods. He was involved
in studying the strength of materials as well. Following is a pictorial description
of the equipment used by him for tensile tests [7]:

Figure 5. Galileos illustration of tensile tests
Galileo labelled the strength of bar as the absolute resistance to fracture and
was able to approximately give the value for the strength of copper. Furthermore,
he tested bars and rods in bending and addressed the issues of the time related to
cantilever beam. He also derived equations related to mentioned mechanism both
as a rectangular beam and a wedge. Last but not least, he assessed the
performance of hollow beams which at that time were used in art structures to
increase strength without substantial increase in weight.
d) Robert Hooke (1635-1703)

Hooke used various tangible media such as helical springs, watch springs, and
pieces of wood to not only explain the deflections in a beam but also to study the
deformations of longitudinal fibres both on the concave and the convex sides.
With the experiments conducted, he developed both the relation between the
magnitudes of forces and found a way to measure the deformations via a
mathematical relationship known as Hookes law. The law states that that the
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extension of a spring is directly proportional to the load applied to it as long as the
materials elastic limit is not crossed. Such materials which obey Hookes law are
called linear-elastic or Hookean materials. Mathematically [8], Hookes law is:


where,
x is the displacement of the spring's end from its equilibrium position (in
SI units: meters)
F is the restoring force exerted by the spring on that end (in SI units: N
or kg m/s
2
); and
k is a constant called the rate or spring constant (in SI units: N/m or
kg/s
2
).

The relationship above was then plotted by Robert Hooke as shown below and is
famously know as the Stress-Strain Curve. The Hookes law is only valid for the
portion of the curve between the origin and the yield point (2).




Figure 6. Stress-Strain Curve
The diagram is explained as per the information given as under:
1 - Ultimate Strength
2 - Yield Strength (elastic limit)
3 - Rupture
4 - Strain hardening region
5 - Necking region
A: Apparent stress (F/A
0
)
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B: Actual stress (F/A)

e) Newton (1642-1727) and Bernoulli (1667-1748)
Newton was the person who laid the foundation of mechanics. Using the earlier
work done by Robert Hooke on gravitation, he wrote three (3) renowned books
on mechanics and gravitation. The first book identified gravitation as the
fundamental source controlling the motion of the celestial bodies. The second
book produced theories related to the theory of fluids and the third book focused
on the law of gravitation at work in the universe [9]. The concept of introducing
Newton here is to show his contributions towards mechanics and the way his
results were later used by Bernoulli to devise formulas for the deflections in
beams.

The results of the experiments Bernoulli performed related to the bending of
beams were later found to be erroneous but his one conclusion, i.e., the curvature
of the deflection curve at each point is proportional to the bending moment at that
point, was correct. This result was then later used by Euler and other
mathematicians to in their works on elastic curves.

f) Euler (1707-1793)

Euler, a renowned mathematician, is known for his works on moment of inertia,
beam bending, instability, column buckling and rigid body dynamics. He was
interested primarily in the geometrical forms of elastic curves. The correct result
(mentioned above) that Bernoulli had produced was accepted by him and he used
the stated assumption to investigate the shapes of curves in a slender elastic bar
subject to various loading conditions. He incorporated variational calculus to find
the curve of equilibrium via the maxima and minima relations. His experiment is
illustrated as under [10]:


Figure 7. Pictorial description to find curve of equilibrium
The experiment above included a suspended chain fixed at two ends; A and B.
This was one way of finding the elastic curves. Euler also used elastic bars (used
by Bernoulli before) to find the curve of equilibrium and hence, used the
information passed to him by Bernoulli of calculating strain energy (a pre-
requisite of the curve of equilibrium calculation). Following are some curves that
Euler investigated [11]:
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Figure 8. Two of the various curves Euler investigated to find the curve of
equilibrium
Euler also showed that when a distributed load acts on a beam, the differential
equation for the elastic curve would be of the fourth order. Further, he worked on
the vibration analysis of bars and measured small deflections.
g) D Alembert (1717-1783) and Langrange (1736-1813)
D Alembert was famous for his work on inertia force which is the conversion of
dynamics to statics. He and Euler had worked closely for quiet some time on
mechanics but were soon forced to changed paths because of their conflicting
attitudes on the topics. Alembert worked extensively on partial differential
equations which were later used by Langrange in the analysis of elastic curves.
Langrange considered a prismatic bar having hinges at the end as shown below
[12]:

Figure 9. Experiment to investigate small deflections in prismatic beams
He assumed a small deflection under the axial compressive force, P. He generated
various partial differentiation equations and was able to generate infinite buckling
curves. In short, Langrange generated curves for the load which exceeds the
critical value and compared his results by performing experiments on various
beams of varying cross section.

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h) Coulomb (1736-1806) and Laplace (1749-1827)
Both Coulomb and Laplace worked in the field of mechanics by working on
friction (static and dynamic) and derived appropriate equations which were then
used by the researchers to follow.
i) Poisson (1781-1840)
Poisson was a mathematician and a physicist who worked in various fields;
optics, wave theory, potential gradient and mechanics of materials. Related to the
mechanics portion, his biggest feat was the derivation of Poissons ratio which is
the negative ratio of transverse to axial strain. In other words, when a material is
compressed in one direction, it tends to expand in other two directions
perpendicular to the direction of compression. The same applies for the
phenomena of stretching. The formula for Poissons ratio is:

where,
v is the resulting Poissons ratio

is the transverse strain

is the axial strain

The biggest application of Poissons ratio is in pressurized pipe flow where the air
inside the pipe is highly pressurized and exerts a uniform force on the inside of
the pipe material. This results in radial stress within the pipe. The Poissons ratio
will then force the pipe to increase in diameter and decrease in length. This
decrease in length can now have a considerable effect on the pipe joints and may
converge to failure [13].

j) Saint Venant (1797-1886)
Saint Venant was a mechanician and mathematician who made contributions to
the early stress analysis. He is famous for the Saint Venant Principle which states;
The stresses and strains in a body at points that are sufficiently remote from points
of application of load depends only on the static resultant of the loads and not on the
distribution of loads.[14]

The statement above elaborates that the point loads on a surface induce stress
concentrations near the point of application. A stress concentration is normally
defined as an increase in stress along the cross-section caused either by a point load
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or by a discontinuity, such as a hole in the material or an abrupt change in the cross-
sectional shape. The pictures below show the variation of stress concentrations each
by point load, discontinuity and abrupt change in cross-section.



Figure 10. Stress concentrations

k) Galerkin (1871-1945)
Galerkin marked a new era in the mechanics of materials. He used piecewise
continuous functions that may be discontinuous across element boundaries to
solve a boundary value problem by incorporating naturally generalized
unstructured meshes for finite volumes. He then extended his study to elliptical
problems with constraints to solve issues such as incompressible elasticity.
Moreover, he incorporated plasticity theories and phase transition models to
further approximate the results obtained from the meshes. Some of his renowned
works include [15]:
1. Incompressibility constraints at finite strain
2. Mesh based kinematic constraints
3. Boundary conditions as constraints
4. Competitive performance
5. Large scale simulations
The applications of Glerkin models helped to evaluate meshes on elastic plates
and find stresses in dams and retaining walls.
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l) Timoshenko (1878-1972)
Timoshenko is a modern day engineer who is known as the father of modern day
engineering mechanics. He wrote many seminal works in the areas of engineering
mechanics, elasticity and strength of materials. The Timoshenko Beam theory is
one of the famous works of the Ukranian engineer. The model takes into account
shear deformation and rotational inertia effects. This makes it suitable for
describing the behaviour of short beams, sandwich composite beams or beams
subject to high-frequency excitation when the wavelength approaches the
thickness of the beam [16].

If the shear modulus of the beam material approaches infinity and thus the beam
becomes rigid in shear and if rotational inertia effects are neglected, Timoshenko
beam theory converges towards ordinary beam theory.


3. Conclusion

The evolution of mechanics of materials has been discussed in a brief and comprehensive
manner above. The evolution started from the Egyptians and carried all the way to
Timoshenko in the 20
th
century. The major derivations and theories were set in the
sixteenth and the seventeenth century, and based on those mathematical formulations and
experimental results, today we have mechanics of materials as a vast science covering
details from nano to macro levels and incorporating widely varying applications.















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References

[1] Archimedes, On the Equilibrium of Planes or The Centers of Gravity of Planes I, Great
Books of the Western World, v 11, Britannica, 1952, pp. 502-509

[2] N. Ferreira., Mechanics RIPE - Instrumentation Network for Teaching, Physics
Institute, USP, Sao Paulo.

[3] A. Gaspar, Experiments Science for Elementary Education, Attica, Sao Paulo, 2003

[4] Assis, K.T., Andre, Archimedes, the Center of Gravity, and the First Law of Mechanics,
Law of Lever, Second Edition, Montreal, Quebec H2W 2B2, Canada, 2010

[5] Timoshenko, P. Stephen, History of Strength of Materials

[6] et. al

[7] et. al
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooke%27s_law
[9] Hall Alfred, Rupert, Isaac Newtons Life, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical
Sciences
[10] Timoshenko, P. Stephen, History of Strength of Materials
[11] et.al
[12] Robertson, E.F. and OConnor, J.J., Jean Le Rond d Alembert
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson%27s_ratio
[14] Whelan, Saint Venant Principles and Stress concentrations, Spring 2010
[15] Lew, Adrian, Eyck Ten, Alex and Rangarajan, Ramsharan, Some applications of
discontinuous Galerkin methods in solid mechanics, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford
University, USA
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timoshenko_beam_theory