2017 Volume 17 Issue 2 Pages 139-146
History of the experimental mechanics in Republic of Croatia begins in 1920 when Stepan Prokopovych Timoshenko established the Department for testing materials at the Zagreb Polytechnic Institute. Although in the past Croatia was a federal unit of Yugoslavia, in 1992 became an independent country and nowadays the member of European Union. The development of experimental mechanics in Croatia is related to the establishment of Croatian Society of Mechanics and activities and connections to the central European countries through the Danubia-Adria Society of Experimental Methods in Solid Mechanics (DAS). Intensive international cooperation in the framework of the DAS and benefits of development of experimental methods that are used today are suitable for development and research in a number of Croatian laboratories. The paper is divided into three parts: history, creation and development of Danubia-Adria Society and review recent experimental methods and research involving the author: damaging process analysis and experimental analysis in fracture mechanics, application of the object grating method by using 3D image correlation photogrammetry system, the application of the optical method of caustics, structural life management by the survey of different parts of structures and monitoring their integrity over time, biomechanical studies of mechanical testing of bones and ligaments and the application of experimental mechanics in food industry.
