 | | Journal of Applied
Mathematics and Mechanics
Russian Academy of Sciences | | Founded
in January 1936
(Translated from 1958)
Issued 6 times a year
ISSN 0021-8928
(print version) |
Archive of Issues
| Total articles in the database: | | 10522 |
| In Russian (ÏÌÌ): | | 9723
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| In English (J. Appl. Math. Mech.): | | 799 |
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| "In Memory of Samvel Samvelovich Grigoryan (18.02.1930-11.04.2015)," J. Appl. Math. Mech. 79 (4), 411-413 (2015) |
| Year |
2015 |
Volume |
79 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
411-413 |
| DOI |
10.1016/j.jappmathmech.2016.01.012 |
| Title |
In Memory of Samvel Samvelovich Grigoryan (18.02.1930-11.04.2015) |
| Author(s) |
|
| Abstract |
Samvel Samvelovich Grigoryan, a promin Soviet and Russian academic and specialist in mechanics, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of the Chinese and Armenian Academies of Science and Member of other Russian and foreign academies, Professor Emeritus of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and a member of the Editorial Board of our journal (for more than 25 years) passed away on the 11th April 2015 after a long illness.
The whole of his working and creative life was associated with Moscow State University and with the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, from which he graduated with distinction in 1953. Shortly after his post-graduate studies and defending his candidate's dissertation, he went to work at the Institute of Mechanics of Moscow State University where, from 1962 to 1981, he was deputy director and, from 1992 to 2001, director. In the final days of his life, he managed the laboratory of the mechanics of natural processes that he had set up.
It is difficult to find a division of mechanics in which he did not obtain important and often pioneering scientific results and he is by rights considered as one of the founders in areas such as modern soil and rock mechanics, the mechanics of natural processes, sports mechanics and biomechanics. His results have received wide acknowledgement in the form of numerous prizes and awards in our country and abroad. His scientific achievements and a list of his works were presented in an article dedicated to him on his eightieth anniversary and published in our journal (J Appl Math Mech 2010; 74(3):255-266).
Being the favourite pupil of the outstanding scientist and specialist in mechanics Academician L. I. Sedov, Grigoryan left a large scientific school behind him and, among his students, there are 10 doctors and 40 candidates of science in the physico-mechanical, technical, biological, medical and geographical sciences.
His principal scientific results will now be noted. A modern mechanical-mathematical theory (quantitative models) of processes in the movement, equilibrium, deformation and disintegration of soils and rocks was constructed and, on the basis of this theory, fundamental problems concerning the action of an explosion in these media and the effect of seismic explosive waves on equipment and objects located in them (and on their surface) were solved. Quantitative models of the mechanics of surface processes (of glaciers, snow avalanches, rock slides, mud flows and landslides) were constructed and basic problems in this field were solved.
A new law of dry friction was established that modifies the well-known Coulomb law in the high pressure region. An explanation of the phenomena of the movement of glaciers, the "air wave" from a snow avalanche and the anomalously high mobility of large-scale masses of crushed rocks in the case of rock slides and powerful explosions was given using this law and the Painlevé paradox, well-known in mechanics, that is, the paradox of dry friction that had remained unsolved for a century, was also solved.
A new model for the approximate description of water flows in large-scale shallow water areas was constructed. The effect of the excitation of parametric oscillations in vessels containing a liquid and a gas with intense intermixing of them was revealed and quantitatively described. An explanation of its nature was given and a simple theory of the phenomenon of the ultra-deep penetration of rigid microparticles into rigid bodies was constructed.
A mechanical-mathematical theory of the evolution of a seismic centre was proposed, theoretically fundamental empirical laws of modern seismology were derived from it and a scheme was proposed for monitoring the foreshocks of earthquakes in order to predict them. A theory of resonances in seismic processes was constructed that enables the destructive effects of earthquakes to be predicted and enables equipment to be protected against seismic events effectively.
A device for eliminating serious emergencies when drilling oil and gas wells (an elastic oscillation driver (EOD)) was developed, patented and brought into effective practical use.
A qualitative theory of the evolution of processes accompanying the intrusion of celestial bodies into the atmospheres of planets and the Sun was constructed. The characteristics of the well-known Tunguska meteorite were calculated and the characteristics of the collision between the Shoemaker-Levy-9 comet and Jupiter in the summer of 1994 were predicted.
A simple approximate quantitative theory of tropical hurricanes and typhoons was constructed and a theory of the formation of ball lightning was proposed.
His theoretical investigations in cosmology during his final years must especially be mentioned. He developed a new original idea regarding the structure and life of the Universe and a corresponding quantitative theory that is radically different from the existing and generally accepted idea which, as is well-known, is extremely difficult to understand (the Big Bang theory). His theory is, like many other of his theoretical papers, very simple in its structure and logic and is free from any difficulties of a fundamental nature. A simple model of the structure and dynamics of the Universe, that is free from the "difficulties" in existing cosmology, was constructed based on Logunov's gravitational theory and a general cosmological idea proposed earlier by Grigoryan.
A new material, Kavelast, was synthesized. This material has the property of increasing in volume by fifty or more times when wetted with water and technologies for its use were developed in sealing subterranean equipment components against water penetration, preventing water loss due to seepage from channels and reservoirs, in extinguishing fires, in the drilling of oil and gas wells and, in agriculture, in order to increase the water-retaining capacity of permeable soils.
The phenomenon of the effective regulation of the resistance to blood flow in the vascular system of animals and humans by means of linear high molecular weight polymers was discovered and such biopolymers were separated out from blood. An explanation of the nature of Korotkoff sounds was given and a quantitative theory of these sounds was constructed. Korotkoff sounds are a phenomenon extensively used in medicine to measure arterial blood pressure. A theory of the optimization of blood circulation processes in a branching vascular system was constructed.
The scientific foundations of the organization of a training process, the construction of sport sleighs and bobsleighs and the design of sledge-bobsleigh runs and a considerably cheaper new technology for their construction were developed. This work enabled us to win gold and bronze medals in sleighing for the first time at the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid (USA, 1980) and to bring Soviet sledge-bobsleigh sport onto a leading level in the world. On account of this activity, he was a long-term member of the National Olympic Committee of the USSR and chairman of the sledge sport and bobsleighing Federation of the USSR.
Professor Emeritus Grigoryan of Moscow State University was honoured with prizes, the M. A. Lavrent'ev and V. I. Vernadskii gold medals of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the S. A. Chaplygin prize, the Lomonosov prize of Moscow State University as well as the prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the State Prize of Ukraine, the medals "For valiant work", "in Commemoration of the Century since the Birth of V. I. Lenin", "Veteran of Labour", "In memory of 850 years of Moscow" and many other awards, including foreign awards.
He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Armenian Republic.
From October 1959 until January 1960 he worked in the Chinese People's Republic and presented an annual course on supersonic aerodynamics and gas dynamics to a large group (about 80 people) of young specialists from the aviation branch. Many of them subsequently became professors and generals. For this work, he was awarded the "Sino-Soviet Friendship" medal by the government of the Chinese People’s Republic (1960).
He was actively occupied with public work in connection with problems in the Armenian diaspora of Russia that arose after the break-up of the USSR. He headed the Armenian community of Moscow and the Regional National-Cultural Autonomy of the Armenians of Moscow. He was one of the founders of the community organization "The Union of Armenians of Russia" in the summer of 2000 and a member of the Council and Governing Body of the Union of Armenians of Russia and a Cavalier of the Order of the "Silver Cross" of this organization. He was also a member of the Council of the World-wide Armenian Congress.
Of late, he made use of the widest mass audience platform, all-Russia television, to bring scientific knowledge to viewers. He regularly appeared on the NTB channel in a programme of the TV presenter Alexander Gordon, telling the large audience in an easily understood manner about the most complex problems associated with the structure of the Universe, quantum physics and thermodynamics. By general admission, this stimulated enormous interest on the part of the viewers.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Nobel Laureate Zhores Ivanovich Alferov and Samvel Samvelovich Grigoryan were elected Foreign Members of the Academy of Sciences of the Chinese People's Republic. They became pathfinders to the Academy of Sciences of the Chinese People's Republic and the first members of the USSR and Russia elected as foreign members of this academy.
He published more than 320 scientific papers including the monographs "The Aeromechanics of Supersonic Flow around Bodies of Revolution of Exponential Form" (with co-authors, 1975), "The Mechanics of Glaciers" (with co-authors, 1977), "Quantitative Theory of Geocryological Conditions" (with co-authors, 1978), "Glaciology and Soil Mechanics" (with co-authors, 1982), "The Onset of Landslides, Mud Flows and Avalanches. The engineering Protection of Territories" (with co-authors, 1987). He has more than 70 inventions and patents.
His memory remains in our hearts. His extraordinarily brilliant talent, unending devotion to science and unexpected extremely profound ideas will inspire many generations of pupils, and the investigations he initiated will be continued in the papers of pupils and colleagues.
The colleagues and pupils of Samvel Samvelovich Grigoryan, the editorial board and the editorial staff of the journal "Applied Mathematics and Mechanics" and the management of Moscow State University express their most profound and sincere condolences to his relations and those dear to him. |
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