This book starts with the invention of the wheel nearly 5000 years ago,
and via Archimedes, Aristotle and Hero describes the first practical
applications such as water wheels and grinding wheels, pushing on to
more rigorous scientific research by inquiring minds such as Leonardo da
Vinci and Copernicus in later ages. Newton and Leibniz followed, and
beam structures received maximum attention three centuries ago. As focus
shifts and related disciplines such as mathematics and physics also
develop, slowly turbomachines and rotor and blade dynamics as we know
the subject now take shape. While the book traces the events leading to
Laval and Parsons Turbines, the emphasis is on rotor and blade dynamics
aspects that pushed these turbines to their limits in the last century.
The tabular and graphical methods developed in the pre-computer era have
taken different form in the last fifty years through finite element
methods. The methods evolved in the last century are discussed in detail
to help modern day designers and researchers. This book will be useful
to young researchers and engineers in industry and educational
institutions engaged in rotor and blade dynamics work in understanding
the past and the present developments and what is expected in future.
Faculty and industry engineers can benefit from this broad perspective
history in formulating their developmental plans.