Mohr's circle
Círculo de Mohr
- Date
- 1882 · confidence medium
- Place
- Dresden, Saxony, Germany
- Credited to
- Christian Otto Mohr (building on Karl Culmann's graphical method)
- Field
- Tools
What was discovered
Engineer Mohr, a professor in Dresden, extended Culmann's graphical method for representing stresses to two and three dimensions and added a failure criterion based on the stress circle, now a basic tool in structural and geotechnical analysis.
Swiss engineer Karl Culmann had already conceived a graphical representation of stresses in earlier decades, which inspired Mohr.
What it led to
- Graphical calculation of principal stresses without complex algebra
- Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion in soil mechanics
- Widespread use in mechanical and civil engineering