Abstract
The author has studied the strength of materials in the department of mechanical engineering for almost 25 years. The educations and research works in the field of strength of materials have remarkably changed with the development of computer, as seen in almost all other engineering fields. That is, the main content of researches and educations in the strength of materials has been shifting from the so-called structural analyses to the mechanical properties of engineering materials. In this research of mechanical properties, the meso-scopic mechanical approach has remarkably developed and delivered the significant contributions. What is the meso-scopic approach? What kind of role does the meso-scopic approach have. In this paper, the author tries to answer to such questions for somewhat out-of-field people, as simple as possible, by using the research activities of plasticity as an example.
