Simon R. Eugster – författare

This book evaluates the importance of various historical sources and discusses their role in the creation and transmission of scientific knowledge. It presents an annotated translation of the introductory words given by Johan Ludvig Heiberg to his translation of the works of Archimedes. Further, it offers English translations of and commentaries on selected fundamental works by Ernst Hellinger and Gabrio Piola, which lay the groundwork for the modern theory of advanced materials, and also examines the criteria used to evaluate scientific works.

This book presents critical evaluations of various historical sources and their impact on technological development. The problem of the origins of the Principle of Virtual Work is discussed and an  exegesis of the Pseudo-Aristotle Mechanica Problemata is presented. Readers will also find an exploration of the criteria used to evaluate scientific works, providing insight into the selection and preservation of significant scholarly contributions. In particular, the case of Continuum Mechanics textbooks selection in XX century is examined.

This research monograph discusses novel approaches to geometric continuum mechanics and introduces beams as constraint continuous bodies. In the coordinate free and metric independent geometric formulation of continuum mechanics as well as for beam theories, the principle of virtual work serves as the fundamental principle of mechanics. Based on the perception of analytical mechanics that forces of a mechanical system are defined as dual quantities to the kinematical description, the virtual work approach is a systematic way to treat arbitrary mechanical systems. Whereas this methodology is very convenient to formulate induced beam theories, it is essential in geometric continuum mechanics when the assumptions on the physical space are relaxed and the space is modeled as a smooth manifold. The book addresses researcher and graduate students in engineering and mathematics interested in recent developments of a geometric formulation of continuum mechanics and a hierarchical development of induced beam theories.