Strength of Materials Mustafa İnan İTÜ Vakfı Yayınları

Prof. Dr. Mustafa Inan (1911-1967) graduated from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and later joined the faculty of the same University and led the department of Applied Mechanics and Strength of Materials. He also served as the Dean of the Civil Engineering Faculty, and in 1957 was elected as the Rector of ITU.

He authored this book after lecturing on the topic over 25 years.

Why another book on ‘Strength of Materials’? There are many publications on this classic topic in materials science and engineering.

However, Professor Inan’s aim in writing this book was to highlight the wholeness of the topic. Unlike other works, this treatise on the ‘Strength of Materials’ avoids being a collection of various unrelated problems, but analyzes the core concepts in a holistic fashion.

Foreword

The translation of this book has an unusual and interesting history. It began in the winter of 2016 when I received a call from Huseyin Inan asking me if I would be willing to translate into English his late father Mustafa Inan’s monumental work “Cisimlerin Mukavemeti” which translates as “Strength of Materials.” It appeared in published form well after my student years –he was my professor− and just a few months prior to his untimely death.

An intellectual giant, a gifted mathematician and scientist, he was well versed in both “the logic of Einstein as well as the intuitive wisdom of Sufi mysticism.” So the call, apparently inspired by the recommendations of a few colleagues of mine, was truly an honor and I did not hesitate to accept the challenge.

For the next six months I was engaged in an arduous task, which, to my great surprise, turned into a work of discovery: The discovery of the many remarkable features of this major work. Anyone more or less familiar with the subject of strength of materials will immediately relate to the contributions of S. Timoshenko. In fact, Professor Inan was the very person who authored the Turkish translations of Timoshenko’s two volumes “Strength of Materials” as well as his volume on Plates and Shells. But Inan’s “Magnum Opus” is chock-full of fundamental novelties. For doctoral students, especially, the coverage of advanced material dealing with the concept of shear center, the various methods suggested for the approximate solution of various properties such as the deflection curves, the energy methods and, last but not least, the two elaborate and detailed final chapters on
elasto-kinetics and on elastic stability, are unique in their in-depth presentation of the material as well as in pointing to future directions of research. Most significantly, this book so uniquely detailed, retains a remarkable freshness while covering topics, some of which are as old as the time of R. Hooke.

I am, indeed, honored to have my name associated with my esteemed professor’s magisterial work.             

Sedat Sami, Professor Emeritus

Carbondale, Illinois, USA