Alan Arnold Griffith

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Alan Arnold Griffith (born June 13, 1893 in London ; † October 13, 1963 ) was a British engineer who was known as the founder of fracture theory and jet turbines (1926), particularly because of his work on material fatigue (1920).

AA Griffith studied mechanical engineering in Liverpool, which he completed with a doctorate, and was from 1915 at the Royal Aircraft Factory, the later Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE). His fracture theory, which he published in 1920, was of great influence. In fracture mechanics , the Griffith crack is named after him. His 1926 work on the aerodynamic design of turbine blades in engines was also groundbreaking. In 1930, as an expert, he was largely responsible for the rejection of Frank Whittle's proposal for a jet engine, but took up the idea again in 1940. He became a senior scientist in the laboratories of the Department of Aviation in South Kensington and from 1931 back at the RAE, where in 1938 he was in charge of the propulsion development department. From 1939 to 1960 he was Head of Engine Development at Rolls-Royce , where he developed trend-setting engines such as the Rolls-Royce Avon and the Rolls-Royce Soar .

In 1917, together with Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, he developed an experimental method for representing stresses in models of mechanical systems through soapskins.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society .

literature

  • AA Rubbra: Alan Arnold Griffith 1893-1963, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 10, 1964, pp. 117-126
  • Flight October 24, 1963
  • Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium , Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 1003f (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9

Remarks

  1. ^ AA Griffith: The phenomenon of rupture and flow in solids, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 221, 1921, pp. 582-593
  2. ↑ Christoph Broeckmann, Paul Beiss: Material Science I. Institute for Material Applications in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 2014, pp. 88–101.
  3. ^ Griffith, An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design, 1926
personal data
SURNAME Griffith, Alan Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British engineer
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1963