C HRONIC L E S

THE

DEPARTMENT

MATERIALS G. S.

OF

OF KIEV

THE

STRENGTH

POLYTECHNIC

OF

INSTITUTE

Pisarenko

1973 completed 75 y e a r s from the foundation of the Kiev Order of Lenin Polytechnic Institute. In connection with this we would like to note the role which the Department of the Strength of Materials has played in the establishment and development of high level engineering training and the formulation of scientific r e s e a r c h in mechanics in our country. The Department of the Strength of Materials was established in 1898 at the foundation of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. Its first head was P r o f e s s o r V. L. Kirpichev, the first head of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. From the s t a r t of its foundation the department b e c a m e one of the m o s t important c e n t e r s for the training of engineering personnel and help to industry, which was p r i m a r i l y e x p r e s s e d in the mechanical testing of various constructional m a t e r i a l s and in various forms of consultation and expertise in engineering work. As a leading scientist of his time and a talented l e c t u r e r and o r g a n i z e r of high level engineering training in our country, P r o f e s s o r V. L. Kirpiehev was able f r o m the v e r y beginning to choose the m o s t rational direction for the activity of the department, combining the teaching work of his c o l l a b o r a t o r s in the department with the scientific work. T h e r e f o r e it is no accident that a l a r g e galaxy of scientists well known in their time and many young scientists worked in this d e p a r t m e n t over its whole h i s t o r y . Subsequently, in various scientific centers of the country, the m a j o r i t y of the young scientists brought fame to the c o u n t r y ' s science of the strength of m a t e r i a l s and b e c a m e outstanding scientists, known not only in our country but also abroad. It is sufficient to say that such scientists have worked in the Department of the Strength of Materials and lead it as P r o f e s s o r S. P. Timoshenko, who was l a t e r chosen as an academician of the m a j o r i t y of academies of the World, including the Academies of Science of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR, P r o f e s s o r A. M. Voropaev, and Academicians of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR K. K. Siminskii and F. P. Belyankin. Among others who have worked in this department a r e such scientists as Academician A. N. Dinnik, Academicians of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR E. O. Paton, S. V. Serensin, N. N. Davidenkov, and V. G. Karnaukhov, Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR B. N. Gorbunov, I. Ya. Shtaerman, and V. T. Troshchenko, P r o f e s s o r s N. N. Afanas'ev, A. A. Umanskii, N. D. Zhudin, N. I. Chernyak, 1~. S. Umanskii, V. V. Khil'chevskii, N. S. M o z h a r o v skii, and others. Almogt all of the scientists named s t a r t e d their scientific work in the Department of the Strength of Materials of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and, further developing their work in v a r i o u s aspects of strength, went into advanced fields of science and obtained recognition both within our country and beyond its boundaries. The Department of the Strength of Materials has always been and r e m a i n s an outstanding center of science in problems of strength in our country. A whole s e r i e s of scientific directions has r e c e i v e d their s t a r t with r e s e a r c h f i r s t done in this dep a r t m e n t . For example, in our country the p r o b l e m s of fatigue strength, p a r t i c u l a r l y the fatigue of cast irons, were f i r s t studied in this department by P r o f e s s o r A. M. Voropaev, and of the s t r u c t u r a l m e c h a n ics of bridges by E. O. Paton. In the department P r o f e s s o r s K. K. Siminskii and F. P. Belyankin were T r a n s l a t e d from P r o b l e m y Prochnosti, No. 3, pp. 123-124, March, 1974.

9 1974 Consultants Bureau, a division of Plenum Publishing Corporation, 227 West 17th Street, New York, N. Y. 10011. No part o[ this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, micro[ilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. A copy of this article is available from the publisher [or $15.00. 396

Fig. 1 the f i r s t in the country to s t a r t the study of stone and wood. A. N. Dinnik was the f i r s t to study questions of m e a s u r i n g d e f o r m a t i o n on the b a s i s of the t e m p e r a t u r e effect, N. N. Davidenkov the f i r s t to study the m e c h a n i c s of m a t e r i a l s , V. G. Karnaukhov, B. N. Gorbunov, and A. A. Umanskii the f i r s t to study the calculation of the s t r e n g t h and r e s i s t a n c e of thin wall r o d s , N. N. Afanas'~v the f i r s t to study the theory of s t r e n g t h , A. D. Kovalenko the f i r s t to study p r o b l e m s of t h e r m a l s t r e s s e s , G. S. P i s a r e n k o the f i r s t to study m e c h a n i c a l oscillations taking into account p o w e r l o s s e s and p r o b l e m s of strength at high t e m p e r a t u r e s , l~. S. Umanskii the f i r s t to study the s t r e n g t h of c o m p o s i t e m a t e r i a l s , N. S. Mozharovskii the f i r s t to study the s t r e n g t h of heat r e s i s t a n t alloys under n o n s t a t i o n a r y m e c h a n i c a l s t r e s s e s and v a r y i n g t e m p e r a t u r e s , and N. V. Vasilenko the f i r s t to study p r o b l e m s of nonlinear hys.teresis questions of the m e c h a n i c s of a d e f o r m e d body. The c o l l a b o r a t o r s of the d e p a r t m e n t have always linked t h e i r scientific developments with the r e q u i r e m e n t s of i n d u s t r y . The d e p a r t m e n t g a v e e s p e c i a l l y g r e a t help to m a n y a r e a s of industry and construction during the p e r i o d of the r e s t o r a t i o n of the national economy of the country a f t e r the F i r s t World and F a t h e r land w a r s . Then much work was done on studying s t r e n g t h in the rebuilding of d e s t r o y e d b r i d g e s , e l e c t r i c power stations, m i n e s , plants, and g o v e r n m e n t buildings, in studying the strength and d a m a g e of s u g a r plant s t e a m b o i l e r s f o r m e r l y in s e r v i c e , etc. In the y e a r s of the f i r s t five y e a r plans, the p e r i o d of i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n of the country, the d e p a r t m e n t did work on t e s t i n g v a r i o u s m a t e r i a l s u s e d in m u c h construction of that period and on investigating m a n y a s p e c t s of aviation designs in connection with the s t a r t of the r a p i d development of the aviation industry. In the y e a r s of the occupation of Kiev by the G e r m a n and F a s c i s t i n v a d e r s the l a b o r a t o r y buildings w e r e c o m p l e t e l y d e s t r o y e d and only a s m a l l portion of the l a b o r a t o r y equipment was saved thanks to the Senior Mechanic of the d e p a r t m e n t , N. S. Ruzhitskii, who had worked t h e r e f r o m the day of its founding. A f t e r the w a r , when the d e s t r o y e d buildings had been rebuilt, the l a b o r a t o r i e s of the D e p a r t m e n t of the Strength of M a t e r i a l s s t a r t e d to function. The d e p a r t m e n t s t a r t e d much c r e a t i v e work both on the t r a i n i n g of young s p e c i a l i s t s and e n g i n e e r s and on the p r e p a r a t i o n of scientific l e a d e r s , the candidates and d o c t o r s of s c i e n c e . To a significant d e g r e e this was aided by c l o s e connections of the d e p a r t m e n t With a c a d e m i c institutes, p a r t i c u l a r l y with the Institute of S t r u c t u r a l Mechanics of the A c a d e m y of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, which is a m o n g the f i r s t t h r e e institutes in the c r e a t i o n of the a c a d e m y of s c i e n c e s of the republic and was f o r m e d at the s t a r t of 1919. The p e r s o n n e l of the D e p a r t m e n t of the Strength of Mat e r i a l s of Kiev Polytechnic Institute w e r e e s p e c i a l l y active in its organization. In r e c e n t y e a r s this dep a r t m e n t has been closely r e l a t e d to the Institute of P r o b l e m s of Strength of the A c a d e m y of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, which was founded in 1966, and to a l a r g e d e g r e e with the efforts of the p e r s o n n e l of the D e p a r t m e n t of the Strength of M a t e r i a l s of Kiev Polytechnic Institute.

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It is to the point to say the Institute of P r o b l e m s of Strength of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR is the basic institute of Kiev Polytechnic Institute for the training of young specialists, m e c h a n i c a l engineering r e s e a r c h e r s in the speciality "Dynamics and Machine Strength," which was introduced t h r e e y e a r s ago. During the p o s t - w a r period the department in collaboration with the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR has p r e p a r e d and spoke in support of seven d o c t o r ' s and 55 candidate's t h e s e s . Of the n u m b e r of those candidates now working in the Institute of P r o b l e m s of Strength of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, five m o r e have recently spoken in support of and p r e p a r e d for speaking in support of d o c t o r a l t h e s e s . As a rule the subjects of all of the scientific work done in the dep a r t m e n t during the last 25 y e a r s has been closely coordinated with the subjects of the r e s p e c t i v e a c a d e m i c institutes and has been dependent upon the r e q u i r e m e n t s of the leading b r a n c h e s of industry of our country, which determine m o d e r n technical p r o g r e s s . T h e r e is p a r t i c u l a r l y significant scientific i n t e r e s t in r e s e a r c h done in the a r e a of static s h o r t time and long time strength at high t e m p e r a t u r e s (up to 3000~ of r e f r a c t o r y m a t e r i a l s and alloys, in the t h e r mal fatigue of high t e m p e r a t u r e strength m a t e r i a l s , in the strength of composition m a t e r i a l s and, p a r t i c u larly, of soft p l a s t i c s , and in the endurance of sheet m a t e r i a l s under the plane s t r e s s e d condition. T h e r e is significant i n t e r e s t in t h e o r e t i c a l and experimental investigations of the oscillations of mechanical s y s t e m s taking into account the dissipation of energy and the form of the s t r e s s e d condition and also in the study of the s t r e s s e d condition of axially s y m m e t r i c a l elements of design in the elastic and e l a s t i c - - p l a s t i c a r e a taking into account the t e m p e r a t u r e s applicable to the elements of turbine r o t o r s . During r e c e n t y e a r s the d e p a r t m e n t in fulfilling its scientific work has enlisted additional m e a n s along the lines of c o n t r a c t s with production e n t e r p r i s e s . Noting the extensive scientific work which is done in our d e p a r t m e n t , we m u s t e m p h a s i z e that the m o s t important activity of each of the colleagues of the d e p a r t m e n t is education work among young students. As is known, the strength of m a t e r i a l s is a general t h e o r e t i c a l engineering discipline which is taught to students of all specialties offered in Kiev Polytechnic Institute. In addition to the educational activity of the colleagues of the department, which includes the giving of l e c t u r e s and conducting s e m i n a r s and p r a c t i c a l work in the m e c h a n i c a l l a b o r a t o r i e s , the faculty of the department does much work on methods related to the development of textbooks for l a b o r a t o r y and d o m e s t i c work and also to the writing of textbooks on the strength of m a t e r i a l s . For example, during the last ten y e a r s the personnel of the d e p a r t m e n t have written two s h o r t c o u r s e s and one complete c o u r s e , the t h i r d edition of which has a size of 42 p r i n t e r ' s sheets, for technical u n i v e r s i t i e s with the approval of the Minist r y of Higher and Middle Education of theUSSR, and was issued in N o v e m b e r in honor of the 75th a n n i v e r s a r y of the Institute. At p r e s e n t the D e p a r t m e n t of the Strength of Materials of Kiev Polytechnic Institute p o s s e s s e s , as ~ e v e r before, g r e a t scientific potential and, entering the last q u a r t e r of its f i r s t century, is filled with d e s i r e to mak~ further contributions to the work of training engineers and scientific l e a d e r s , to the work of the technical p r o g r e s s of our country.

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