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IssuesArchive of Issues2003-4pp.169-181

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"Alexander Yul'evich Ishlinskii (on the 90th anniversary of his birth)," Mech. Solids. 38 (4), 169-181 (2003)
Year 2003 Volume 38 Number 4 Pages 169-181
Title Alexander Yul'evich Ishlinskii (on the 90th anniversary of his birth)
Author(s)
Abstract Alexander Yul'evich Ishlinskii is an outstanding scientist of the 20th century in the field of mechanics. He is an author of fundamental investigations in mechanics of deformable solids, dynamics of rigid bodies, theory of gyroscopes, and inertial navigation. He has founded new areas in the branches of science to which he devoted his talent of a scientist, engineer, and remarkable educator.

Ishlinskii was born on August 6, 1913. His father served as a machine quartermaster of the cruiser "Bogatyr" during the Russo-Japanese war. He was deprived of the nobiliary title for his participation in the Kronstadt rebellion (1906).

In 1931, Ishlinskii entered the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University as a second year student. Since then, his life and activity had been closely tied with this university and this department for more than 70 years. N. N. Bukhgol'ts, V. V. Golubev, M. A. Lavrent'ev, A. P. Minakov, A. I. Nekrasov, M. M. Filonenko-Borodich, A. Ya. Khinchin, and many other brilliant professors of the that time Moscow University were among his teachers.

Subsequently, he said: Moscow University is infinitely dear to me. Professors of Moscow University always drew our attention to the necessity to learn the new during all our life and showed a brilliant example of following this principle. None of them was ever proud of his/her great erudition or embarrassed to confess to chance lack of knowledge of a separate issue. With all my might I am trying to follow examples and check for instructions of my teachers, because I find these deeply right. I personally am deeply indebted to Moscow University. I am happy to learn from first-class scientists, take part in scientific seminars, deliver lectures, conduct classes, and be glad of achievements of my students. The spirit of the university-logical sequence of arguments, thorough analysis of experimental data, and rigor of statements and thinking-has always directed my life and activities.

In 1938, Ishlinskii defended his candidate (Ph.D.) dissertation on the topic "Rolling friction", and in 1943 his doctoral (D.Sc.) dissertation on the topic "Mechanics of incompletely elastic and viscoplastic bodies." Since 1944, he had been a professor of Moscow University.

Since his being a Ph.D. student, Ishlinskii had been involved in intensive versatile activity as an educator at the L. B. Krasin Moscow College of Electrical Engineers, Moscow State University, N. E. Bauman Higher Technical School, Moscow Power Engineers Institute, Institute of Automotive Engineers, K. Liebknecht Pedagogical Institute, and V. V. Kuibyshev Academy of Military Engineers. Since 1943 to 1945 he was the head of the chair of theoretical mechanics at Moscow School of Military Engineers.

In 1940, Ishlinskii began his work in instrument-making industry. Contacts with a remarkable engineer N. N. Ostryakov, greatest designers, with S. F. Farmakovskii being among them, and famous Academician A. N. Krylov defined his interests and directions of investigations in the field of gyro engineering and precise instrument-making. In 1947, Ishlinskii moved to Kiev on the invitation of Academician M. A. Lavrent'ev. There he was elected a Full Member (Academician) of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (AN UkrSSR) and appointed the Director of the Institute of Mathematics of that Academy. Under the direction of A. Yu. Ishlinskii, new fields of applied science were developed at the AN UkrSSR Institute of Mathematics and new departments were organized, with the Department of General Mechanics being among these. The Kiev school of scientists in the field of mechanics, primarily in mechanics of gyro systems and inertial navigation, was formed. A. Yu. Ishlinskii established a wide-ranging cooperation of the AN UkrSSR Institute of Mathematics with instrument-making organizations in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev. He took part in full-scale testing of navigation devices at Northern latitudes, on Franz Josef Land. At Kiev University, he delivered original courses in plasticity, theory of gyroscopes, plane problem of elasticity, and history of mechanics.

In 1955, Ishlinskii returned to Moscow but continued to support his creative scientific contacts with his colleagues and former students in Kiev up to the last days of his life.

Since 1956, Ishlinskii had been the Head of the Chair of Applied Mechanics at Moscow State University. (Subsequently, this chair was renamed the Chair of Applied Mechanics and Control Processes.) In 1959, he was appointed the Director of the Institute of Mechanics at Moscow State University. In 1960, he was elected a Full Member (Academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1964 till 1990, Ishlinskii was the Director of the Institute for Problems in Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (currently, the Institute for Problems in Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Under his direction, this Institute became the most authoritative scientific center of the USSR in the field of mechanics.

Scientific creative work of Ishlinskii is characterized by a breadth and variety of his scientific interests, from issues of fundamental theoretical value to specific applied problems. In solid mechanics, these issues cover the behavior of elastic, plastic, viscoplastic, and hereditary media, static and dynamic fracture of bodies and structures, as well as many other problems.

His investigations in the theory of rolling resistance are associated with the construction of models of relaxing media. He has proposed and analyzed a model of rolling process based on concepts of deformation of the foundation (soils or other relaxing media). He has analyzed the arrangement of slip and adhesion zones during rolling on the basis of Coulomb's friction model and explained effects associated with dry friction and dynamics determined by this phenomenon. These investigations initiated numerous subsequent studies.

When considering the flow and stability of viscoplastic media, Ishlinskii made a choice in favor of Euler's representation of the flow. This representation turned out to be quite adequate for the description of flow of rigid-plastic media. He had a premonition about the role of piecewise smooth loading surfaces and proposed a new piecewise smooth plasticity condition-the maximum reduced stress condition. This condition, together with the maximum tangential stress condition (Tresca's condition), restricts the class of admissible non-concave plasticity conditions for a perfectly plastic isotropic body. He gave a numerical solution to the problem of the determination of the limiting load for the impression of a smooth punch with a circular or spherical base into a perfectly plastic half-space (Brinell test).

When constructing general relations of perfect plasticity, Ishlinskii proceeded from Saint-Venant's statically determinate relations for the plane problem. He has stated relations of 3D perfect plasticity for intersection of two yield surfaces. In these relations, he did not utilize the hypothesis of proportionality of the stress deviator to the strain rate deviator and thus obtained relations corresponding to the generalized associated yield law. Subsequently, Ishlinskii with his co-authors obtained far-reaching developments of these results.

He has created a theory of translational hardening of a plastic material. He proposed a mechanical model that described the phenomenon of hardening due to the change in the internal stresses. Based on this model, he obtained general relations for a hardening plastic material. These relations describe, in particular, such phenomena as induced anisotropy and Bauschinger effect.

The remarkable experiments by M. A. Lavrent'ev which discovered the formation of various harmonics during the dynamic compression of a pipe initiated investigations of Lavrent'ev and Ishlinskii on dynamic stability of elastic and inelastic systems. These investigations were based on the analysis of the change of initial deviations with time. A cycle of investigations by Ishlinskii involved the study of imperfect elasticity, vibration, and fracture of solids. He considered processes of rolling and drawing at high strain rates, the motion of sand, the formation of residual strains during unloading of elastic-plastic bodies, as well as a number of other phenomena.

It is worthwhile to note his fine analysis of the process of growth of a crack in an elastic body in the presence of adhesive forces. Using an example of widening of a rectilinear cut (a crack) by distributed forces applied along the normal to both edges of the cut, he settled many of the issues that had caused discussions previously.

First studies by Ishlinskii in the theory of gyroscopes started in 1940 and were devoted to the geometry and kinematics of gimbals, in which almost all gyroscopic systems and devices are installed. To calculate various kinds of errors in the determination of the coordinates of remote objects he applied an analytical approach and obtained a number of exact results in the mechanics of finite rotations. He has stated and proved the classical theorem of solid angle accumulation. This theorem has entered texts and handbooks related to the determination of the accuracy of stabilization of various objects. Ishlinskii consistently and systematically investigated phenomena that could influence the accuracy of gyro devices. In his works, he has analyzed the influence of the stiffness of the structure, vibration, and friction on the behavior of gyro devices. He has created a theory of new gyro devices (air-suspended vertical gyro, multi-rotor attitude-and-heading reference device, directional gyro, rolling compensator gyro), as well as a theory of a gyro pendulum and a directional gyro moving along the Earth sphere. A fine investigation by Ishlinskii of the bound of the methodical error of a stabilizer directional gyro moving along the Earth surface was of fundamental importance for solving the problem of autonomous navigation in North Pole region, in which the directional gyro was the only means for course direction.

He has found conditions to be imposed on the parameters of gyro systems and the initial conditions of their motion to provide independence of the deviation of gyro devices of the acceleration of maneuvering of objects containing such systems. A development of his studies in the theory of gyroscopes was his research on inertial navigation systems.

For a long period, beginning with World War II, his attention had been drawn to the mechanics of motion of rapidly rotating bodies. Such processes turned out to be able to be investigated by utilizing a string suspension. Experiments demonstrated a great variety of stable and unstable modes of dynamic behavior of an axially symmetric rigid body. This variety of possible motion modes required much effort for their description. New steady modes of motion were identified. The investigations of motion of a rigid body on a string suspension are among the classical studies in dynamics of a rigid body.

Ishlinskii is an author of more than 300 scientific publications. Among these publications are fundamental monographs Mechanics of Special-purpose Gyro Systems (1952), Mechanics of Gyro Systems (1963), Inertial Control of Ballistic Missiles (1968), Orientation, Gyroscopes, and Inertial Navigation (1976), Mechanics of Relative Motion and Inertial Forces (1981), Applied Problems in Mechanics (1987, in two volumes), Classical Mechanics and Inertial Forces (1987), Rotation of a Rigid Body on a String and Related Problems (1991, co-authored by V. A. Storozhenko and M. E. Temchenko), Mathematical Theory of Plasticity (2002, co-authored by D. D. Ivlev), and Stability Analysis of Complex Mechanical Systems (2002, co-authored by V. A. Storozhenko and M. E. Temchenko). These monographs treat highly complex issues of many sections of mechanics. New and new generations of young scientists and engineers are utilizing and will utilize these monographs to study mechanics.

In his creative work, Ishlinskii frequently turned to the analysis of scientific achievements and the history and methodology of mechanics. He has written a number of review papers and presented these in numerous scientific seminars, conferences, and symposia. He has authored the book Mechanics: Ideas, Problems, and Applications (1985). The scope of this book is rather diverse. It covers historical perspectives of the development of mechanics, the analysis of achievements in this science, problems, and the place of mechanics among other exact and natural sciences. Deep insight into the essence of phenomena under discussion and a tendency to present a complete and objective history of an issue are characteristic of Ishlinskii. The cited book contains a brilliant essay about Galileo Galilei and essays about late contemporaries of the author. These essays have been written with deep respect for these persons and their achievements in science.

In 1965, Ishlinskii was appointed the Chairman of Scientific and Methodological Council on Theoretical Mechanics at the Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education of the USSR. He had always stood upon the role and the value of theoretical mechanics as a basic discipline and prevented attempts to exclude it from university curricula as an independent subject.

He managed a great editorial work. For many years he was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mechanics of Solids, the Editor-in-Chief of a number of periodicals and other editions, and a member of editorial boards of many journals.

Scientific achievements, organizational work for science, and educational and social activity of Ishlinskii have received high assessment from the Government of his country. He was honored with the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, decorated with three Orders of Lenin, the Order of October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, two Orders of People's Friendship, the Badge of Honor, the Order of Cyrill and Methodius Class I (Bulgaria), and many medals.

He was awarded the Lenin Prize (1960), the State Prize of the USSR (1981), the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1996), the N. N. Ostryakov Prize (1975), the A. A. Dinnik Prize (1981), the V. G. Shukhov Gold Medal (1992), many other prizes named after outstanding scientists, and medals of various international academies and scientific societies.

He was the first President of All-Union Council of Scientific and Engineering Societies (1970-1991), the Honorary President of the Russian Engineering Academy, President of the International Federation of Engineering Organizations (1987-1991), and Vice-President of the International Federation of Scientists. He was a foreign member of the Academies of Sciences of Poland and the Czech Republic and Engineering Academies of Great Britain and Mexico.

His constant creative participation in the development of topical directions of science and technology, clear statement of problems to be solved, brilliant presentation of the material, the ability to obtain clear complete results by simple means, personal charm, tactfulness, and cheerfulness attracted young people searching for new ideas and applications for their creative force. Former students and successors of Ishlinskii utilize and develop his ideas and apply his results when designing and manufacturing various mechanical devices and structures. Many of his students have become outstanding well-known scientists.

Acuity of thought, competence, correctness, and benevolence were inherent in Ishlinskii. He had an exceptionally powerful intelligence and an astonishing scientific intuition. His opinions were thoroughly justified, his assessments of events and people were sober and weighted. He defined his place and attitude to life as follows: A scientist is not a politician. He should follow his vocation and influence the surrounding world mostly by laws of nature discovered by him. In this case, he will demand less from society and more from himself. A. Yu. Ishlinskii has left us an example of an exceptionally high strictness with respect to himself.

The entire age-the age of M. V. Keldysh, M. A. Lavrent'ev, S. P. Korolev, and V. I. Kuznetsov-has ended with the death of A. Yu. Ishlinskii.

He has left an indelible trace in science. His achievements have entered the golden treasury of mechanics.
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