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German civil engineer.

Biographical Information

Name: Franz Dischinger
Full name: Franz Anton Dischinger
Born on 8 October 1887 in , Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Europe
Deceased on 9 January 1953 in , Germany, Europe
Place(s) of activity:
Education:

Studies at the Technical School (TH) in Karlsruhe

1913

Begins his work at Dyckerhoff & Widmann

1928

Doctorate at the Technical School in Dresden under K. Beyer

1931

Award from the Prussian Academy for Construction

1932

Becomes lecturer for reinforced concrete construction at the Technical School in Berlin

1939 - 1939

Publication of the theories on creep and shrinkage

Short biography of Franz Dischinger

He completed his studies in civil engineering at Karlsruhe TH in 1911. There he was influenced by the mathematician Karl Heun and the structural engineer Friedrich Engesser. From 1912 to 1932 he was a structural engineer with Dyckerhoff & Widmann, becoming a director before he left. In 1923 he developed methods of building and analysing shells, and gained his doctorate on this subject under Kurt Beyer at Dresden TH in 1928. He was full professor for reinforced concrete at Berlin TH from 1933 to 1945 and held the same post at Berlin TU until 1951 (apart from one year). Besides his work on the analysis of shells, Dischinger published articles on problems with reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges during his time in Berlin. His work in these fields lent great impetus to the establishment of reinforced concrete for structural purposes in the inter-war years. The Edward Longstreath Medal of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia was awarded to Dyckerhoff & Widmann and Zeiss-Jena in 1938, and specifically mentioned Walter Bauersfeld, Ulrich Finsterwalder, Hubert Rüsch, Wilhelm Flügge and Franz Dischinger. Dischinger was awarded honorary doctorates by Karlsruhe TH (1948), Aachen RWTH (1949) and Istanbul TH (1952).

Main contributions to structural analysis

Schalen und Rippenkuppeln [1928/1]; Eisenbeton-Schalendächer System Dywidag [1928/2]; Die Theorie der Vieleckkuppeln und die Zusammenhänge mit den einbeschriebenen Rotationsschalen [1929]; Die weitere Entwicklung der Schalenbauweise "Zeiss-Dywidag" [1932]; Untersuchungen über die Knicksicherheit, die elastische Verformung und das Kriechen des Betons bei Bogenbrücken [1937]; Elastische und plastische Verformungen der Eisenbetontragwerke und insbesondere der Bogenbrücken [1939]

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. 848

Structures and Projects

Participation in the following structures & large-scale projects:

accredited to
designer
engineer

Biography from Wikipedia

Franz Dischinger (8 October 1887 - 9 January 1953) was a pioneering German civil and structural engineer, responsible for the development of the modern cable-stayed bridge. He was also a pioneer of the use of prestressed concrete, patenting the technique of external prestressing (where the prestressing bars or tendons are not encased in the concrete) in 1934.

After completing Gymnasium in Karlsruhe, Germany, Dischinger went to the Technical University in Karlsruhe where he studied and received a degree in building engineering. After getting his degree in 1913, he then started working for Dyckerhoff & Widmann A.G., an engineering firm in Germany. In 1928 Dischinger went back to school to receive his doctorate at the Technical School in Dresden, Germany.

In 1922, he designed the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena with Walther Bauersfeld, using a thin-shell concrete roof in the shape of a hemisphere. Their system was subsequently patented, and Dischinger published a paper on the relevant mathematics in 1928.

Since the previous stay and cable bridges in Dischinger's opinion were both flawed technically and disturbing looking, he decided to publish his own cable stayed bridge. This design has been used ever since, more than 100 of these cable stayed bridges have been built.

For the 1938 design of a rail suspension bridge (not built), he had studied historical bridges incorporating inclined stay elements, such as those by Ferdinand Arnodin and John Roebling. He went on to design the 183 m span Strömsund Bridge in Sweden, completed in 1955 and generally considered the first of the modern tradition of cable-stayed bridges, although there had been many isolated examples of the bridge form before then. This employed a steel deck and cables, with large spacings between the stays typical of the early designs. It appears in Strömsund's coat of arms.

Other key works include:

  • Großmarkthalle, Basel, Switzerland, 1929 (dome roof)
  • Market Hall, Leipzig, Germany, 1930 (polygonal dome roofs)
  • Koblenz bridge, Germany, 1935 (three arch concrete bridge)
  • Aue bridge, Germany, 1936
  • Cologne Rodenkirchen Bridge, Cologne, Germany, 1954 (with others, including Fritz Leonhardt)

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

Bibliography

  1. Dischinger, Franz (1932): Beseitigung der zusätzlichen Biegungsmomente im Zweigelenkbogen mit Zugband. In: IABSE Publications, v. 1 ( 1932).

    https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-708

  2. Dischinger, Franz (1932): Beitrag zur Theorie der Halbscheibe und des wandartigen Balkens. In: IABSE Publications, v. 1 ( 1932).

    https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-709

  3. Dischinger, Franz (1936): Ausschaltung der Biegezugspannungen bei Balken- und Stabbogenbrücken. Presented at: Zweiter Kongress der IVBH = Deuxième Congrès de l'AIPC = Second Congress of IABSE, Berlin-München 1.-11. Oktober 1936.

    https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-2719

  4. Dischinger, Franz (1936): Compensation des efforts de traction engendrés par la flexion. Presented at: Zweiter Kongress der IVBH = Deuxième Congrès de l'AIPC = Second Congress of IABSE, Berlin-München 1.-11. Oktober 1936, pp. 777-800.

    https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-2958

  5. Dischinger, Franz (1933): Contribution à la théorie de la demi-dalle et de la paroi portante. In: Construction et Travaux Publics, n. 11 (November 1933), pp. 523-535.
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  • About this
    data sheet
  • Person-ID
    1000007
  • Published on:
    29/12/1998
  • Last updated on:
    22/07/2014
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