Skip to main content

Memorial Tributes Volume 4 (1991) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

William S. Pellini
Pages 273-278

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 273...
... distinguished career, he made significant contributions to the design of highly stressed steel structures, to the design and inspection of nuclear containment vessels, to the failure analysis of railroad equipment, to the development of programs for research on methods of controlling aerodynamic heating, and to many other fields.
Read the entire page →
From page 274...
... He applied explosive techniques that he had learned at the Naval Proving Ground, Dahigren, to achieve rapid deformation of a plate made up of two different kinds of steel joined by a brittle weldment. Under identical explosive loading conditions, brittle cracks moved rapidly into the two different plates.
Read the entire page →
From page 275...
... In 1958 Mr. Pellini took leave from the Naval Research Laboratory to join the staff of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and its Materials Advisory Board.
Read the entire page →
From page 276...
... In 1958 he returned to the Naval Research Laboratory, resuming his position as superintendent of the Metallurgy Division and serving temporarily as an associate director of the Naval Research Laboratory. In the Metallurgy Division, he continued to supervise important work on materials and their behavior until he retired in 1974.
Read the entire page →
From page 277...
... Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 1963. His contributions to the development and application of the field of fracture mechanics won him the Albert Sauveur Achievement Award of the American Society for Metals in 1972, and the U.S.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • materials selection
  • proving ground
  • naval proving
  • civilian service
  • distinguished civilian

  • containment vessels
  • nuclear containment
  • space power
  • staff director
  • fracture mechanics

  • aerodynamic heating
  • service award
  • gold medal
  • tank car
  • steel joined

  • videotape short
  • controlling aerodynamic
  • ship structures
  • survivors included
  • pellini assembled

  • vessel containment
  • prevents dynamic
  • structural steels
  • carolyn ross
  • extended supersonic

  • identical explosive
  • continuing work
  • explosive techniques
  • elegantly portrayed
  • design prevents


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.