This ebook has been compiled to honour Professor William Johnson. It grew out of a want by a variety of his pals, colleagues and previous students to mark various important functions which have occured about the earlier couple of several years. In 1982 Bill Johnson celebrated his sixtietn birthday, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Culture and ne retired from the Chair of Mechanics in the Division of Engineering at Cambridge College. In 1983 he was elected to the Fellowship of Engineering and in 1985 he completes twenty five yrs as Editor-in-Chier of the Worldwide Journal of Mechanical Sciences. in his Biographical Notes, Peter Mellow describes Bill’s training and advancement as an engineer and as a scholar and suggests some of the several areas of analysis and instruction to which he has contributed.
Bill Johnson’s analysis output has been phenomenal as evidenced by his checklist of publications which are integrated in this quantity. What is also apparent from a careful study of this list are the names of a wide variety of learners and educational colleagues with whom he has interacted and sparked into successful daily life in exploration. Many of these have continued to be lively and owe their commence in investigation to Bill’s assistance, encouragement and generate. Similarly obvious in this big array of publications is the huge array of his interests which includes quite a few areas of essential and technological steel forming including the use of explosive, electromagnetic and immediate effect forces plastic collapse of structures terminal ballistics explosive fragmentation and slicing dynamic structural plasticity explosive welding creep vehicle crashworthiness elastic affect mechanics impression power absorption powder compaction and several aspects of biomedical engineering. Quite a few of the puolications which have resulted from his actions in these locations are characterised by a clarity of presentation and an publicity of the essence of the problem beneath discussion which have opened up entire fields of analysis into which some others have been drawn.
No compendium of papers of the length of this quantity could mirror all of Professor Johnson’s passions. However, the eighteen technological chapters, split similarly between the wide headings of steel forming and affect, give a flavour of some of the places in which Bill has been and carries on to be energetic. The goal has been to acquire a established of papers wnich reflect current operate in these big parts of study and as this kind of the volume ought to be of
fascination to all those lively in the discipline of strong mechanics. The
papers consist of equally theoretical and experimental contributions and
as this kind of reflect the crucial interplay between these two
ways in these parts of stable mechanics which are dominated
by non-linear results.
Invoice Johnson has an intercontinental track record and this is mirrored in the nations of origin of the several authors who have contributed to this volume. As Editor, I desire to thank all tne contributors for their assistance and persistence and would like to specific distinct thanks to Peter Mellor and Norman Jones for their guidance in formulating the contents of the e-book and for the duration of the preparing of the manuscripts for publication. Many thanks are also thanks to Pergamon Press for their enthusiasm in agreeing to supply this quite acceptable way of shelling out tribute to Bill Johnson’s contribution to study in reliable mechanics.
This team of contributors is but a token of the huge amount of good friends, colleagues, former learners and skilled acquaintances wno would, I am positive, have been satisfied to make comparable contributions if room had allowed them to do so. On tneir behalf, on benalf of the contributing authors and on my very own behalf, I nope that this quantity will stimulate additional perform in these crucial places of mechanics. If it does then it will offer a fitting tribute to Professor Johnson.