Day 197/365 of Steel – Jean Résal

Jean Résal (22 October 1854– 14 November 1919) was a French civil engineer. He was a Professor of mechanical engineering at the École polytechnique, and designed several steel bridges in France, especially bridges above the Seine in Paris.

General de la Motte-Rouge bridge on Erdre river in Nantes
Fig 1: General de la Motte-Rouge bridge on Erdre river in Nantes
Photo: Ben XU

The career of the brilliant student of the École des Ponts ParisTech was always an upward ladder: service in the Roads and Bridges Department at the Loire-Atlantique Département and thereafter in the shipping authority in Paris.

Debilly Footbridge, Paris, France.
Fig 2: Debilly Footbridge, Paris, France.
Photo: Ali Sabbagh

Résal concentrated on the theory and practice of steel bridges from a very early stage. He had a profound influence on steel bridges at the transition from the discipline-formation to the consolidation period of theory of structures. He will demonstrate the inadequacy of the notion of yield strength in design calculations.

Mirabeau Bridge in Paris during the flood of the Seine in January 2018
Fig 3: Mirabeau Bridge in Paris during the flood of the Seine in January 2018
Photo: Ibex73

The bold steel arches of the Pont Général-de-la-Motte-Rouge (1885) in Nantes, Pont Mirabeau (1896) in Paris, Pont de l’Université in Lyon (1899), Pont Alexandre III (1900) and Pont Notre-Dame (1914) in Paris set standards for steel bridges. All those bridges could only be built as a result of Résal’s research into elasticity and the strength of structural steels, work that he summarized in a monograph. 

About the Author:

Bruno Dursin – Managing Director at Believe in Steel. Bruno has more than 30 years of experience in promoting steel & steel solutions. His clients benefit from his extensive network within the building industry.

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