Alexander Hrennikoff

After studying at the Moscow Institute of Communication Engineers, Hrennikoff emigrated to Canada and completed a masters degree at the University of British Columbia in 1933. He gained a doctorate at the MIT in 1940 with his dissertation entitled Plane stress and bending of plates by method of articulated framework [Hrennikoff, 1940], the main results of which were summarised by Hrennikoff in a muchquoted series of papers [Hrennikoff, 1941] in which he develops the gridwork method with which, in particular, two-dimensional elastic continua can be modelled as a trussed framework system. Hrennikoff remained at the University of British Columbia as professor of structural engineering until his death. He was presented with the ASCE Moisseiff Award in 1949. Hrennikoff ’s gridwork method was generalised by himself and others, e. g. for the analysis of the stability of plates and shells. It became very important in the middle of the innovation phase of structural theory (1950–75) as powerful computers started to become available (see section 10.4.1.3). The gridwork method therefore formed the basis of the first computer-assisted structural analyses in the automotive industry (see section 10.4.1.4).

Main contributions to structural analysis:

Plane stress and bending of plates by method of articulated framework [1940]; Solution of problems in elasticity by the framework method [1941]; Three-Dimensional bar cell for elastic stress analysis [1971]; Stability of plates using rectangular bar cells [1972]; Trapezoidal bar cells in plane stress [1975] 

Source: Kurrer, Karl-Eugen The History of the Theory of Structures, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH, Berlin (Deutschland), ISBN 3-433-01838-3, 2008; p. 738