Li Guohao

Li Guohao (born April 13, 1913 in Meixian , † February 23, 2005 in Shanghai ) was a Chinese civil engineer, known for bridge construction.

biography

Li Guohao came from an impoverished farming family and studied civil engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai from 1931 to 1936 . There was then teaching Erich Wilfried Reuleaux , the dean of the faculty at Tongji University was and advised the Chinese Ministry of Railways. He studied at the TH Darmstadt from 1938 and received his doctorate there in 1940 under Kurt Klöppel with a dissertation on the calculation of suspension bridges with the theory of the 2nd order ( practical calculation of suspension bridges according to the theory of the 2nd order ). The dissertation was groundbreaking in the field of suspension bridges (Karl-Eugen Kurrer). Even before publication, it was used to calculate the suspension bridge in Cologne-Rodenkirchen . Prevented from returning to China by the Second World War, he remained at the TH Darmstadt and completed his habilitation in 1943 with a thesis on the determination of lines of influence of elastic frameworks (also for highly statically indeterminate systems). After the end of the war he went to China and in 1946 became a professor at Tongji University. In 1956 he became Vice Rector there. During the Cultural Revolution he was sent to the countryside and re-educated, but remained scientifically active (in 1973 his book on the dynamics of truss bridges appeared, which was widely circulated in China). After its end, he returned to his chair and was rector of his university in 1977. He advocated international contacts between the Tonji University, especially with the TH Darmstadt (cooperation agreement 1980, also with the Ruhr University Bochum). On this occasion he visited the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979. Under his rectorate the university was expanded from a specialization in civil engineering to the entire field of natural and engineering sciences. In 1984 he became honorary rector of his university.

He was one of the best-known bridge construction engineers in China, both through his calculation methods, which set an international standard, as well as practical in the construction of large bridges (as early as the 1960s he influenced the design of several bridges over the Yangtze), at a time than the 1980s Years ago a stormy development in bridge construction in China began. He also dealt with earthquake-proof construction.

With Klöppel he published not only about suspension bridges, but also an important essay on sufficient criteria for branching points of elastic equilibrium (1943), which they treated using the example of steel buckling. In China he wrote textbooks on steel construction (1952), steel bridges (1952) and bridge dynamics (1955). This was followed in 1980 by a book on earthquakes and structural engineering, bridge calculations (1988) and the effects of explosions on buildings (1989).

In 1982 he received the Goethe Medal and in 1987 the Great Federal Cross of Merit. In 1985 he received an honorary doctorate from the TH Darmstadt. In 1987 he received the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering .

In 1955 he became a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and in 1994 the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

literature

• Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium , Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 1024 (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9

Fonts

• Analysis of boxgirder and truss bridges, Springer 1988

Web links

• Biography at the TH Darmstadt
• China Vitae

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Li is the family name here, Guohao is the first name.