Investigation into thin-walled structures at the technical University of Łódź

Abstract

The behaviour of thin-walled structures has been a very important area of research activity in the Department of Strength of Materials and Structures (previously the Institute of Applied Mechanics) of the Technical University of Łódź in Poland for over 30 years. The investigations concerned many kinds of thin-walled structures: plates of different shapes including trapezoidal and circular, girder and column structures composed of flat plates, cylindrical and conical shells, and composite multi-layer structures subjected to a variety of load types. The analyses included buckling and post-buckling behaviour, assessment of ultimate loads and the behaviour of the structure in post post failure range. This necessitated usage of the theory of elasticity and elasto plasticity in the constitutive relations describing phenomena of the materials behaviour. All the works done at our Department resulted in a number of papers and books, achieved academic degrees and titles (PhD, DSc, Professor). They were also presented in numerous conferences, symposia and seminars. It is our academic duty and a pleasure to mention that for about 20 years we have been accompanied in our thin-walled research activity by our sister unit from the University of Strathclyde-the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Some of our achievements would not be possible without this valuable collaboration, which was part of a more general scheme of academic link initiated between our universities almost 30 years ago.