About Tresca’s Memoirs on the fluidity of solids (1864–1870)

One hundred and fifty years ago, Henri-Édouard Tresca submitted a series of Memoirs to the French Academy of Sciences, which were devoted to recording the extensive series of experiments he had carried out. In these experiments, he had investigated punching, rolling, forging, stamping and extruding processes of various materials, and he had definitely identified a phenomenon that he called the “fluidity” of solids subjected to very high pressures. In addition to the precise description of his experiments, he proposed a mechanical theory for the observed phenomenon. In this theory, the concepts now called yield criterion and plastic flow rule were introduced for the first time.