Présentation de l'éditeur
Unassuming inventor, audacious builder, his extraordinary intuition regarding the behaviour of concrete, recently confirmed by the fine analysis of micromechanics has made Eugène Freyssinet one of the engineers who have most profoundly marked the construction world over the entire XXth century. In the earlier part of his career, he drove concrete to the limits of its strength in the arches of bridges, which broke record after record. Then, having found how to free himself from the deficiencies of concrete as a material, he invented prestressing which transformed it into that "new material" which "revolutionised the art of construction". The technique of prestressed concrete has conquered the world and has outlived its inventor, but has covered up the name of the man, his convictions, and his message. To make him known through his works (numerous) and his writings (rare), such is the aim of this book. The reader will discover numerous examples of structures that illustrate both the extraordinary potential of concrete as a material and how the concept of prestressing has helped it to supplant steel, particularly in civil engineering structures. Yet, one will also find a man who was conscious of the social role of the engineer, sometimes waxing lyrical when contemplating a well-finished structure and forever imbued with a code of ethics which is perhaps his finest message for future generations.
