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Biographical Information

Name: Gustave Magnel
Born on 14 September 1889 in , Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium, Europe
Deceased on 5 July 1955 in , East Flanders, Flanders, Belgium, Europe

Short biography of Gustave Magnel

Gustave Magnel studied civil engineering at the University of Ghent from 1907 to 1912. He left Belgium in 1914 and worked as a civil engineer at the D. G. Somerville & Co. Contractor Company until 1917, finally becoming chief engineer there. After he returned to Belgium in 1919, he joined the Strength of Materials Laboratory at the University of Ghent. He first started lecturing at the university in 1922 and went on to become a lecturer in 1927 and finally (1937) full professor of concrete and reinforced concrete construction as well as director of the Laboratory for Reinforced Concrete Construction. The French Association des Ingénieurs Docteurs honoured Magnel with ist Grande Médaille, and he received the Frank P. Brown Medal from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Magnel was elected a member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences and represented his country at UNESCO from 1945 to 1946. Further honours include Commander of the Yugoslavian St. Sava Order and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. Magnel was one of the pioneers of prestressed concrete and the inventor of a prestressing anchorage system named after him and Blaton. He supported Freyssinet during the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte (FIP) and was ist first vice-president. In his capacity as a structural engineer, too, he was acclaimed by his contemporaries. For instance, he was the first person to use prestressed continuous beams – in his design for Sclayn Bridge; and it was Magnel's Walnut Lane Memorial Bridge that inaugurated the use of prestressed concrete in the USA.

Main contributions to structural analysis:

Calcul pratique des poutres Vierendeel [1933]; Stabilité des Constructions [1948/1]; Prestressed concrete [1948/2]; La pratique du béton armé [1949] 

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. 746

Structures and Projects

Participation in the following structures & large-scale projects:

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Biography from Wikipedia

Gustaaf Paul Robert Magnel (15 September 1889 – 5 July 1955) was a Belgian engineer and professor at Ghent University, known for his expertise regarding reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete.

Magnel was born in Essen in 1889. In 1912, he graduated as an engineer from Ghent University. At the start of the First World War, Magnel emigrated to England where he worked as an engineer at D.G. Somerville & Co. Contractor Company. After the war he returned to Ghent where he worked in the University and where in 1922 he was given the opportunity to teach a course on the calculations needed for reinforced concrete. In 1926 he founded the Magnel Laboratory for Concrete Research.

As an engineer Magnel designed Walnut Lane Memorial Bridge and was involved in the calculations for the building of the Boekentoren.

Magnel died in Ghent in 1955.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Gustave Magnel" and modified on 22 July 2019 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.

Bibliography

  1. Magnel, G. (1949): Les applications du béton précontraint en Belgique. In: Bulletin technique de la Suisse romande, v. 75, n. 7 (26 March 1949).

    https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-56861

  2. Magnel, G. (1948): Les applications du béton précontraint en Belgique. Presented at: Troisième Congrès de l'AIPC = Dritter Kongress der IVBH = Third Congress of IABSE, Liège, 13-18 Septembre 1948.

    https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-4022

  3. Magnel, Gustave (1949): Applications of Pre-stressed Concrete in Belgium. In: Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers, v. 32, n. 6 (April 1949), pp. 161-174.

    https://doi.org/10.1680/ijoti.1949.13053

  4. Magnel, Gustave (1950): L'acier précomprimé (Nouvelles considérations). In: Ossature métallique, v. 15 (September 1950), pp. 428-435.
  5. Magnel, Gustave (1947): Le béton armé aux Etats-Unis. In: La Technique des Travaux, v. 23, n. 1-2 (January 1947), pp. 17-24.
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  • About this
    data sheet
  • Person-ID
    1000069
  • Published on:
    18/01/1999
  • Last updated on:
    22/07/2014
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