NEW YORK, July 7, 2008 -- Dr. Arturs Kalnins, a resident of Bethlehem, Pa., and professor of mechanics emeritus at Lehigh University, will be honored by ASME.  He is being recognized for significant contributions to the field of pressure vessel and piping technology, particularly for advancing the state of the art in the development of new design curves for torispherical heads and primary stress limits on the basis of plasticity, and for other significant breakthroughs in the field. He will receive the Society’s Pressure Vessel and Piping Medal.

The medal, established in 1980, will be presented to Kalnins during the 2008 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, which is being held in Chicago, Ill., July 27 through 31.

Kalnins joined the faculty at Lehigh University as an associate professor in 1965 after serving as assistant professor at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.) for five years.  He served as professor of mechanics at Lehigh University from 1967 to 2004.

His main research interest was the behavior and failure of metal plates and shells.  He has developed computer programs for the analysis of shells of revolution that include metal plasticity, free vibration, buckling and creep.  He has served as a consultant to many companies in the United States and abroad on topics such a pressure and thermal stress analyses, creep rupture, metal fatigue, buckling and fracture of ductile cast iron.  His current interest is in fatigue of metals.

Over the years Kalnins taught basic mechanics courses to sophomores; developed and taught a senior course in finite element analysis and graduate courses on plates and shells and the theory of stability; and supervised 12 Ph.D. dissertations and two master’s theses.  Kalnins also lectured at the University of Mexico, Mexico City (1972); was a Fulbright-Hayes Fellow (1977) at the University of Innsbruck (Tirol, Austria); and gave seminars at Pennsylvania State University, University Park (1977-80) and the Petrobras Company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1977-78).  He was a member of Third Party Review Group (1982-83) established by GPU Nuclear to provide an independent evaluation of the repair and return to service of the Three Mile Island Unit 1 (near Harrisburg, Pa.) steam generators.

Kalnins is the author/co-author of 124 research papers and one book, and served as associate editor of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (1970-84).

An ASME member, Kalnins joined the Working Group on Shells in 1976.  He has been a member of the Subgroup on Design Analysis/Subcommittee on Design and the Working Group on Vessels/Section III since 1987 and 2003, respectively.  In this capacity, he has developed new design curves for torispherical pressure vessel heads and new design tools for limit load and fatigue analysis; and, under a 2004-05 grant from ASME Standards Technology, LLC, he formulated the basis for a response to claims of a European Union Study regarding the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. 

Kalnins earned his bachelor’s and masters degrees and his Ph.D. in engineering mechanics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1955, 1956 and 1960, respectively.

Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences.

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