Hardy Cross

Hardy Cross (born February 10, 1885 in Nansemond County, Virginia, † February 11, 1959 in Virginia Beach) was an American civil engineer .

Cross first studied at Hampden Sydney College, where he graduated as a teacher of English and math, which he taught at Norfolk Academy from 1903 to 1906. He studied civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in 1908. He worked for the bridge division of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in St. Louis . In 1911 he received a masters degree from Harvard University . As a lecturer, he taught at Brown University as an assistant professor for seven years . After a brief practical activity, he became professor of structural engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1921 . From 1937 he was a professor at Yale University and head of the civil engineering faculty. In 1945 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1951 he retired.

The cross method ( Analysis of continuous frames by distributing fixed-end moments , Proceedings ASCE 1930), an iterative method for determining the bending moments at the end of the bars of bar structures and frameworks, is named after him. It was particularly suitable for statically highly indeterminate systems and quickly found widespread use, for example in high-rise construction. Cross also made contributions that later led to the finite element method . In 1958 he received the gold medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers .

literature

• Karl-Eugen Kurrer : History of structural engineering , Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 2002, p. 468 (biography). ISBN 3-433-01641-0 .
• Cross Arches, continuous frames, columns, and conduits - selected papers , University of Illinois Press 1963, introduced by Nathan M. Newmark
• Cross Engineers and Ivory Towers , McGraw Hill 1952 (Editor Robert Goodpasture)
• Leonard K. Eaton Hardy Cross-American engineer , University of Illinois Press 2006