Paul Fillunger

{{Short description|Austrian geotechnical engineer}}

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| name = Paul Fillunger

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| birth_date = June 25, 1883

| birth_place = Vienna, Austria

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1937|03|07|1883|06|25}}

| death_place = Vienna, Austria

| education =

| occupation = Geotechnical engineer

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Paul Fillunger (June 25, 1883 in Vienna – March 7, 1937 in Vienna) was an Austrian geotechnical engineer.

Raised in a family of engineers, he studied at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and took a position in the state-owned railway company in 1906. In 1908 he completed a PhD and then went to teach mathematics, machine industry and then mechanics at the University of Vienna.

Fillunger pioneered the study of saturated ground and was made famous by an article published in 1913.{{cite journal |title=Development of porous media theories — A brief historical review

|first=R. |last=De Boer |journal=Transport in Porous Media | date=October 1992 |volume=9 |number=1–2 |pages=155–164|doi=10.1007/BF01039634

|s2cid=122255236 }}{{cite journal |title=Der Auftrieb in Talsperren |journal=Österreichische Wochenschrift für den öffentlichen Baudienst |volume=19 |year=1913 |pages=532, 567}}{{cite journal |last=Fillunger |first=P. |title=Neuere Grundlagen für die statische Berechnung von Talsperren |journal=Zeitschrift des Österreichischen Ingenieur- und Architekten-Vereines |volume=23 |year=1914 |page=441}}

He discovered the difference in behaviors of the effective and general stresses in samples of ground, opening the way for further research. He is considered to be a pioneer of the theory of liquid-saturated porous solids.{{cite book|last=Boer|first=Reint|title=The Engineer And The Scandal: A Piece Of Science History|edition=Springer|year=2005|isbn=9783540231110|page=155|publisher=Springer }}

Fillunger's theories put him in heated conflict with Karl von Terzaghi, who is often referred to as "father of soil mechanics", whom Fillunger was accused of slandering. The University blamed Fillunger, who then committed suicide by opening the gas jets in the bathroom[https://books.google.com/books?id=WQDXM5pgx-AC&dq=%22Paul+Fillunger%22+suicide&pg=PA32 Dimitrios Kolymbas - Constitutive Modelling of Granular Materials p. 32] with his wife.