ABSTRACT
LANGHAAR 14.10. 1909 Bristol CT/USA 28.09. 1992 Corydon IN/USA Henry Louis Langhaar was educated at the Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA, from where he obtained the MS degree in mechanical engineering in 1933, and the PhD degree in mathematics in 1940. He was until 1936, then test engineer at the Ingersoll-Rand Corporation, Phillipsburg NJ, further until 1937 in Tulsa OK assistant seismographer, from 1941 to 1947 structural engineer for an aircraft company at San Diego CA, from when being associate professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at University of Illinois, Urbana IL, taking there over in 1949 as full professor until his retirement. Langhaar was internationally known for his works in solid mechanics and applied mathematics. During his career he was a Lecturer at various universities mainly in the Americas on the general theory of buckling, the theory of modulus, numerical methods for ordinary differential equations, energy principles and visco-elasticity. He is still remembered for the standard book Dimensional analysis and model theory, originally published in 1951. He was the recipient of the 1979 von Karman Medal just one year after retirement from University of Illinois. He won the medal for his ‘Contributions to the mechanics of fluids and solids, and especially for his noteworthy works in dimensional analysis, energy principles and theories of shells’. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, a member of its Performance Test Code on model testing, and member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS. Anonymous (1959). Langhaar, Henry L. Who’s who in engineering 8: 1423. Lewis: New York. Anonymous (1969). Prof. Henry L. Langhaar. Engineering News-Record 147(Nov.29): 57. P Anonymous (1979). Henry L. Langhaar. Civil Engineering 49(10): 95. P Langhaar, H.L. (1942). Steady flow in the transition length of a straight tube. Journal of Applied Mechanics 9(2): 55-58. Langhaar, H.L. (1951). Wind tides in inland waters. Proc. 4th Midwestern Conf. in Fluid Mechanics Ann Arbor: 278-296. Langhaar, H.L., Boresi, A.P. (1959). Engineering mechanics. McGraw-Hill: New York. Langhaar, H.L. (1962). Energy methods in applied mechanics. Wiley: New York. Langhaar, H.L. (1964). Dimensional analysis and model theory. Wiley: New York. Langhaar, H.L. (1979). Geometry and stability theory. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Physik 29(4): 549-560.
