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In solid mechanics, it is common to analyze the properties of beams with constant cross section. Saint-Venant's theorem states that the simply connected cross section with maximal torsional rigidity is a circle. It is named after the French mathematician Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant.

Given a simply connected domain D in the plane with area A, ${\displaystyle \rho }$ the radius and ${\displaystyle \sigma }$ the area of its greatest inscribed circle, the torsional rigidity P of D is defined by

${\displaystyle P=4\sup _{f}{\frac {\left(\iint \limits _{D}f\,dx\,dy\right)^{2}}{\iint \limits _{D}{f_{x}}^{2}+{f_{y}}^{2}\,dx\,dy}}.}$

Here the supremum is taken over all the continuously differentiable functions vanishing on the boundary of D. The existence of this supremum is a consequence of Poincaré inequality.

Saint-Venant conjectured in 1856 that of all domains D of equal area A the circular one has the greatest torsional rigidity, that is

${\displaystyle P\leq P_{\text{circle}}\leq {\frac {A^{2}}{2\pi }}.}$

A rigorous proof of this inequality was not given until 1948 by Pólya. Another proof was given by Davenport and reported in. A more general proof and an estimate

${\displaystyle P<4\rho ^{2}A}$

is given by Makai.

Notes

1. ^ E. Makai, A proof of Saint-Venant's theorem on torsional rigidity, Acta Mathematica Hungarica, Volume 17, Numbers 3–4 / September, 419–422,1966 doi:10.1007/BF01894885
2. A J-C Barre de Saint-Venant, popularly known as संत वनंत Mémoire sur la torsion des prismes, Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l'Académie des Sciences, 14 (1856), pp. 233–560.
3. G. Pólya, Torsional rigidity, principal frequency, electrostatic capacity and symmetrization, Quarterly of Applied Math., 6 (1948), pp. 267, 277.
4. G. Pólya and G. Szegő, Isoperimetric inequalities in Mathematical Physics (Princeton Univ.Press, 1951).

• Elasticity (physics)
• Eponymous theorems of physics
• Calculus of variations
• Inequalities