Italiano
Ettore Antona
22 June 1931 13 January 2009



Picture of Professor Ettore Antona

Prof. Ettore Antona

Outline of Scientific Activities

Analysis of levels of scientific investigation in
the addressed thematic areas

In guise of an example, and without striving towards comprehensiveness, a level-based classification of the listed publications is offered below. 

  • In the thematic area of the probabilistic nature of security, with particular focus on design:

    • (79), aims at providing an overall critical view of the conceptual foundations of security in aerospace design;

    • (80), aims at contributing towards the evolution of design thinking, by accounting for and rationalising recent trends which situate risk analyisis among the most important bases of design.

  • In the thematic area of the mechanics of aeronautical and space systems:

    • (83), discusses at an application level the currently unsourmountable difficulties which hinder future potential extraplanetary missions.

  • In the thematic area of logic and scientific foundations for calculus and design methodologies:

    • (81), discusses at a logical level the foundations of mechanics, by examining the historical evolution of the formulation and of the implications of some principles, as well as their applications;

    • (84), addresses at a logico-methodological level the limits and applications of theoretical models, with examples from the most sophisticated approaches to structural analysis;

    • (87), (90), propose at a conceptual and methodolological level the adoption of uncertainty and of the related principle of maximum uncertainty in the statistic elaboration of data (in particular concerning rare events).

  • In the thematic area of characteristic propagation states in modular structures:

    • (87), (90), aim to demonstrate at a conceptual and methodological level the existence of characteristic states, as well as their properties.

  • In the thematic area of engineering approaches, variational calculus and perturbation methods:

    • (23), (27), provide at a conceptual level examples of applications of variational calculus to optimisation problems in critical stability phenomena;

    • (28), (41), demonstrate at a conceptual level the common substratum of vibrations and critical static phenomena using perturbation methods;

    • (99), examines at a methodological and conceptual level the interrelationships among engineering and mathematical approaches to variational calculs, with particular reference to  Cicala's approaches.

  • In the thematic area of asymptotic approaches to structural analsysis:

    • (84), (92), (99), (106), aim towards elucidating at a methodological and conceptual level the significance of Cicala's contributions, also discussing applications.

  • In the thematic area of continuum dynamics with time dependent boundary location:

    • (58), (61), (62), (63), (64), (66), (93), (95), (96), demonstrate at a phenomenological level the necessity of formulating continuum dynamics phenomena in a propagation form, and highlighting doppler effects in the presence of time dependent boundaries.

  • In the thematic area of the probabilistic quantification of security  (when calculated using deterministic criteria):

    • (71), (94), (97), (103), (110), examine at a methodological and conceptual the probabilistic nature of security and put forwad a proposal for the solution of the probabilistic quantification problem in security, and in particular in structures.

  • In the thematic area of future engineering problems deriving from relativistic speed in space activities, various aspects have been investigated, including also communications and security. However, particular empahsis has been given to:

    • (114), (115), problems related to the mechanical components of the vehicle and to structures

    • (128)  problems of reliabilty, temperature and communications.

  • In the thematic area of the critique of scientific research, an evolutionary vision of the advancement of scientific research has been proposed at an epistelomological level, addressing research in general and the fields of activity more in particular: (123)