François Cosserat (1852–1914) was a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

known by his theories about deformable bodies written with his brother Eugène.

Life and work

François Cosserat was the eldest of the three sons of François-Constant Cosserat, a textile manufacturer in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

. The three sons achieved to study in one of the ''grandes écoles'' of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. François studied at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

from 1870 to 1872 and then in the

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

until 1875. François Cosserat followed a typical career as civil engineer in the French East Railroad Company constructing and designing bridges, tunnels, etc. In 1895 he became chief engineer. Besides his engineer career he worked with his junior brother, Eugène, in

mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...

and elasticity, publishing papers and a book about it. In 1913 he was elected president of the

Société mathématique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

. His most important work is his book, a joint work with his brother,
Théorie des corps déformables (Theory of deformable bodies)
' (1909) in which laid the foundations of the mechanics of the generalized continua. His approach can be particularly useful in modeling nonlinear elastic inhomogeneous deformations and inelastic deformations. Other remarkable joint works are: ''Théorie de l'élasticité'' (1896), ''Note sur la cinématique d'un milieu continu'' (1897), ''Note sur la dynamique du point et du corps invariable'' (1906) and ''Note sur la théorie de l'action euclidienne'' (1909).

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cosserat, Francois 19th-century French mathematicians 20th-century French mathematicians 1852 births 1914 deaths École Polytechnique alumni

Life and work

See also

References

Bibliography

External links