Joseph Melan
Joseph Melan (also in the spelling Josef Melan ) (born November 18, 1853 in Vienna , † February 6, 1941 in Prague ) was an Austrian civil engineer to whom the Melan construction method for arched bridges goes back to the deflection theory .
Melan construction
Melan was a bridge builder and professor at the technical universities in Vienna , Brno and Prague. He invented the melan construction, a bridge construction with reinforced concrete ("melan construction"), which is particularly suitable for arched bridges.
A falsework made of steel is set in concrete and serves as reinforcement . It will initially be erected as a cantilever arch with formwork on its underside . After concreting, there is a steel insert below for the arch bridge. The special thing about it is the high inherent rigidity of the reinforcement.
Numerous bridges in Europe (today's Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain) and in the USA and Japan have been built using this method. Melan received a patent for it in 1892, initially as a construction method for ceiling structures. The “First Austrian Vaulting Committee” carried out experiments with it in 1893. Extensive load experiments were carried out on the company premises of the construction company Pittel + Brausewetter in Pressburg and above all in Brno , where Melan was teaching at the technical university there and where he was able to work out the theoretical basics of his "Melan construction" based on the results obtained.
Melan also influenced American bridge building. David B. Steinman (1886–1960) translated Melan's book Der Brückenbau into English and developed it into a standard work on suspension bridge construction (1929).
One of his most famous students was Friedrich Ignaz Edler von Emperger .
His sons Ernst Melan and Herbert Melan (1893–1960) were also professors at the Vienna University of Technology.
Buildings made by Melan or in Melan construction
- Swimming school bridge , 1898 in Steyr , span 42.4 m, arrow height 2.67 m
- George Bridge . 1899 in Meiningen , span 40 m, arrow height 3.70 m
- several melan bridges in the US, after 1898
- Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana , 1901, span 33.34 m
- Melan arch bridge , 1928/29, span 60 m
- Echelsbacher Brücke , 1930, largest span until 1942 with 130 m
- Ludwigsbrücke in Munich , 1934–1935 with a 43 m wide segment arch
- Stampfgraben bridge over a gorge in Carinthia, span 70 m
- Viaducto Martín Gil , 1942, span 192 m, by Eduardo Torroja Miret
Fonts
- Bridge building , 3 volumes, 1900–1917.
- Handbook for reinforced concrete construction (4th edition), Berlin, 1932
Honors
- Melangasse in Donaustadt (Vienna, 22nd district)
- Honorary doctorate from the German Technical University in Brno
- 1926: Honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology
literature
- Holger Eggemann, Karl-Eugen Kurrer : On the international spread of the Melan system since 1892: construction and bridge construction . In: Beton- und Stahlbetonbau , 101st volume, November 2006, issue 11, pp. 911–922.
- Georg Knittel: Melan, Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , pp. 738-740 ( digitized version ).
- E. Melan: Melan Joseph. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 6, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7 , p. 207 f. (Direct links on p. 207 , p. 208 ).
- Herbert Ricken: The civil engineer . Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-345-00266-3
- Klaus Stiglat : Civil engineers and their work . Ernst & Sohn , Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-433-01665-8
- Karl-Eugen Kurrer: History of Structural Analysis. In search of balance . Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 2016, p. 196f, p. 506f, p. 618f, p. 681f and p. 1008f (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03134-6 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Joseph Melan in the catalog of the German National Library
- German biography
- Joseph Melan. In: Structurae
- Entry on Joseph Melan in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- Melan construction
Individual evidence
- ^ Raimund Ločičnik: Steyr. The changing world of work , Sutton Verlag 2008 ISBN 978-3-86680-315-2 p. 88f
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Melan, Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Melan, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian civil engineer and inventor of the melan construction method for bridges |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 18, 1853 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 6, 1941 |
| Place of death | Prague |