Arthur Vierendeel (10 April 1852 – 8 November 1940) was a
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
born in
Leuven
Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...
, Belgium. He had a career as a university professor, and civil engineer. The structure known as the
Vierendeel truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
is named after him.
Biography
He obtained an
MSc
MSC may refer to:
Computers
* Message Sequence Chart
* Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
* MIDI Show Control
* MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor)
* USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...
in construction and mining engineering in 1874 at the ''
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...
'', after which he worked as an engineer for the company ''
Nicaise et Delcuve'' in
La Louvière
La Louvière (; wa, El Lovire) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Houdeng-Aimeries, Hou ...
, Belgium. In 1885 he became Director for the Ministry of Public Works in West Flanders, and four years afterward also achieved the post of Professor of Construction, Material Strength, and Structural Engineering at the ''Université catholique de Louvain''.
The idea of a bridge without trusses came to him in 1895; the design later became known as a
Vierendeel bridge
A Vierendeel bridge is a bridge employing a Vierendeel truss, named after Arthur Vierendeel.
Such trusses are made up of rectangular rather than triangular frames, as are common in bridges using pin–joints. Because of the lack of diagonal ...
.
For the 1897
World Fair at Brussels he built a 31.5m span bridge at his own expense and loaded to show the correlation between measurement and his numerical analysis.
His work, ''Cours de stabilité des constructions'' (1889) was an important reference during more than half a century. His first bridge was built in
Avelgem
Avelgem (; vls, Oavelgem) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Avelgem proper, Bossuit, Kerkhove, Outrijve and Waarmaarde. On January 1, 2006, Avelgem had a total populati ...
in 1902, crossing the
Scheldt
The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corr ...
river. The construction of this bridge became famous through the
Stijn Streuvels
Stijn Streuvels (3 October 1871, Heule, Kortrijk - 15 August 1969, Ingooigem, Anzegem), born Franciscus (Frank) Petrus Maria Lateur, was a Flemish Belgian writer.
Biography
He started writing at a very young age. He was inspired by his uncle, th ...
book ''De Teloorgang van de Waterhoek''.
He retired as director of public works in West Flanders in 1927, and as Professor at Leuven Catholic University in 1936. He died in 1940.
Legacy
The Vierendeel truss was used in Belgium, particularly on the Belgian railways. Discussions in the journal ''Der Eisenbau'' concerning the pros and cons of the Vierendeel truss led to the development of deformational modelling of structures - necessary for mathematical analysis of Vierendeel trusses.
He emphasised an importance of aesthetics over pure engineering:
As of 2011 the
castellated beam
A castellated beam is a Beam (structure), beam style where an I-beam is subjected to a Longitude, longitudinal cut along its web following a specific pattern.
The purpose is to divide and reassemble the beam with a deeper web by taking advantag ...
and
cellular beam
Cellular beam is a further development of the traditional castellated beam. The advantage of the steel beam castellation process is that it increases strength without adding weight, making both versions an inexpensive solution to achieve maximum ...
are in common use in construction for roof and floor support - both are open web structures without diagonal trusses; vierendeel truss type analysis is used to understand and predict failure modes, which include vierendeel truss type failures.
See also
*
Vierendeel bridge
A Vierendeel bridge is a bridge employing a Vierendeel truss, named after Arthur Vierendeel.
Such trusses are made up of rectangular rather than triangular frames, as are common in bridges using pin–joints. Because of the lack of diagonal ...
References
External links
*
* (Vierendeel bridges, publications and other information)
''Representing structure. Reflections on the work of Arthur Vierendeel "La construction architecturale en fonte, fer et acier"Paper written by Isaac López César and Javier Estévez Cimadevila.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vierendeel, Arthur
1852 births
1940 deaths
Belgian civil engineers
20th-century Belgian engineers
19th-century Belgian engineers
Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni