engineering

Harold M. Westergaard

Harold M. Westergaard is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harold M. Westergaard rather than just read about it. In short: Harold Malcolm Westergaard (9 October 1888 in Copenhagen, Denmark – 22 June 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States) was a Danish structural engineer. He was Professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at the University of Illinois in Urbana and of Civil Engineering at Harvard.

Key takeaways

Harold M. Westergaard belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harold M. Westergaard to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harold M. Westergaard from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harold Malcolm Westergaard (9 October 1888 in Copenhagen, Denmark – 22 June 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States) was a Danish structural engineer. He was Professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at the University of Illinois in Urbana and of Civil Engineering at Harvard.

Biography Westergaard graduated in engineering from Copenhagen Danmarks Tekniske Højskole in 1911. He continued his practice in reinforced concrete in Hamburg, London, Göttingen, and prepared his written dissertation at Königlich Bayerische Technische Hochschule München in 1915. He obtained a PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1916 and was appointed lecturer there for theoretical and applied mechanics. In 1921 he became an assistant professor, associate professor in 1924, and full professor in 1927 at the University of Illinois. For his published paper on the theory of the reinforced concrete, together with W.A. Slater, he received the Wason Medal of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) in 1922. Westergaard worked as technical expert to the Bureau of Reclamation on the design of Hoover Dam. In 1936 professor Westergaard was appointed to the Gordon McKay professorship for structural engineering at Harvard University. Between 1937-1946 acted as dean of the Graduate School of Engineering.

Main Publications On the resistance of ductile materials to combined stresses in two or three directions perpendicular to one another, (1920) Moment and stresses in slabs, (1921) Buckling of elastic structures, (1922) Anwendung der Statik auf die Ausgleichsrechnung, (1925) Stress in concrete pavements computed by theoretical analysis, (1926/1) Computation of stresses in concrete roads (1926/2) One hundred years advance in structural analysis, (1930/1) Computation of stresses in bridge slabs due to wheel loads (1930/2) Water pressures on dams during earthquakes, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (1933) General solution of the problem of elastostatics in an n-dimensional homogeneous isotropic solid in an n-dimensional space, (1935) Bearing pressures and cracks, (1939) Theory of elasticity and plasticity, (1952)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harold M. Westergaard

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harold M. Westergaard claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harold M. Westergaard before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harold M. Westergaard ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harold M. Westergaard

In research: Harold M. Westergaard appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harold M. Westergaard in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harold M. Westergaard is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1888 births, 1950 deaths, 20th-century Danish engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harold M. Westergaard outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harold M. Westergaard in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harold M. Westergaard means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harold M. Westergaard out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harold M. Westergaard in simple terms?

Why does Harold M. Westergaard matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harold M. Westergaard?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harold M. Westergaard.