Memorial Tributes Volume 14 (2011) / Chapter Skim
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BRUNO THÜRLIMANN
BRUNO THÜRLIMANN
Pages 344-349
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From page 345... ...
Bruno Thürlimann was elected a member of NAE in 1978 "for accomplishments in theory, research, design and construction of steel, reinforced concrete, and prestressed concrete structures." In November 1850, when President Zachary Taylor signed a Convention of Friendship, Commerce and Extradition between the United States and Switzerland, he said it was his hope that "the two freest peoples on earth will treat each other reciprocally on a footing of equality." A century later, Bruno Thürlimann, who was born a Swiss citizen and became a naturalized American citizen in 1957, was the embodiment of a bridge between the two nations for transferring technical ideas between the two worlds and improving structural engineering in both. A warm, compassionate, open-minded teacher and researcher, he brought scientific ideas and rigorous mathematical theories from Europe to underpin the highly empirical base of North American structural design.
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From page 346... ...
When Bruno returned to Lehigh as a Research Professor in 1953, he played a key role in the revolutionary development of radically new methods of designing with structural steel based on nonlinear material and geometric models. The limit-design approaches required greatly improved knowledge of local and lateral stability of severely plasticized portions of steel beams and columns.
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From page 347... ...
Entrenched senior faculty, enamored with the beauty and consistency of elastic theory, considered his plasticity theory and its implications a sacrilege. Staying well within the limits of politeness and respect, Bruno summoned his powers of logic, rigor, and inventiveness in extending plasticity to encompass all combinations of axial load, flexure, shear, and torsion in both reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete; eventually, he convinced students, practitioners, and regulatory authorities.
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From page 348... ...
He received wide recognition for his many contributions to structural engineering, including election to membership in NAE, the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences, and similar Spanish, German, and Serbian Academies. He received honorary degrees from Stuttgart and Glasgow universities, was an Honorary Member of both the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Civil Engineers, and was awarded the French Prix Albert Caquot Medal and the Danish Ostenfeld Gold Medal.
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From page 349... ...
In a major essay in 1980, based in part on a previous study by one of his former students, he called attention to the total energy requirements for producing a wide range of building materials. Comparing the energy requirements for five-meter span beams of various materials but equal strength, the study had shown as much as a 260 percent difference between the requirements for producing a steel beam and a prestressed concrete beam.
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