Paul Fillunger

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Paul Fillunger (June 25, 1883 in Vienna; March 7, 1937 in Vienna) was an Austrian scientist.

Raised in a family of engineers, he studied at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and took a position in the state-owned railway company in 1906. In 1908 he passed a PhD and then went to teach mathematics, machine industry and then mechanics at the University of Vienna.

Fillunger pioneered the study of saturated ground and was made famous by an article published in 1913.[1][2]

He discovered the difference in behaviors of the effective and general stresses in samples of ground, opening the way for further research. He is considered to be a pioneer of the theory of liquid-saturated porous solids.[3]

Fillunger's theories put him in heated conflict with Karl von Terzaghi, who is often referred to as "father of soil mechanics", whom Fillunger was accused of slandering. The University blamed Fillunger, who then committed suicide by opening the gas jets in the bathroom,[4] with his wife.

Sources

  • Reint Boer, The Engineer And The Scandal: A Piece Of Science History, Springer, 2005
  • Paul Fillunger, "Erdbaumechanik?", Vienna, 1936

References

  1. ↑ http://www.springerlink.com/content/wl52330244074778/
  2. ↑ Der Auftrieb in Talsperren, Österreichische Wochenschrift für den öffentlichen Baudienst, Band 19, 1913, S. 532, 567, Neuere Grundlagen für die statische Berechnung von Talsperren, Zeitschrift des Österreichischen Ingenieur- und Architektenvereins, Band 23, 1914, S. 441.
  3. ↑ Boer, Reint (2005). The Engineer And The Scandal: A Piece Of Science History (Springer ed.). p. 155. ISBN 9783540231110. 
  4. ↑ Dimitrios Kolymbas - Constitutive Modelling of Granular Materials p. 32
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