Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky
Quick Info
Born
17 January 1847
Orekhovo, Vladimir gubernia, Russia
Died
17 March 1921
Moscow, USSR
Summary
Nikolai Joukowski
or
Zhukovsky
was a Russian scientist who did pioneering work on aerodynamics. He is best known for the so-called
Joukowski aerofoil
.
Biography
Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovskii
(
or
Zhukovsky
or
Joukowski
)
was the son of Egor Zhukovskii who was a communications engineer. Nikolai Egorovich attended the Fourth
Gymnasium
for Men in Moscow, completing his secondary education there in
1864
. He then entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University where he studied applied mathematics. He graduated in
1868
and from
1870
he taught at the Second Gymnasium for Women in Moscow.
After two years teaching at the Gymnasium, Zhukovskii received an invitation to teach mathematics at Moscow Technical School then, from
1874
, he also taught theoretical mechanics there. While he was teaching these courses, Zhukovskii was also studying for his Master's Degree and in
1876
he was awarded this degree for a thesis on the kinematics of a liquid. It is worth pointing out that the Russian Master's Degree is essentially the equivalent of a British/American Ph.D. today while the Russian doctorate at this time was essentially the equivalent of the German
Habilitation
. After being awarded his Master's Degree, a special chair of mechanics was created for Zhukovskii at Moscow Technical School.
Zhukovskii obtained a doctorate from Moscow University in
1882
for a dissertation on the stability of motion. He worked at the university, becoming the Head of the Department of Mechanics in
1886
. By this time he had begun to receive awards for his outstanding work, having been awarded the
N D Brashman
prize for theoretical work in fluid dynamics in
1885
.
Over his career Zhukovskii had a remarkable publications record producing over
200
publications on mechanics. In
1886
he wrote a
[
13
]
:-
... memoir dealing with the motion of bodies filled with a homogeneous incompressible fluid. ... the advantages of Zhukovskii's geometrical and sound mechanical approach to the problem,
[
means that
]
his memoir still remains quite up to date.
Perhaps Zhukovskii is most famous, however, as the founder of the Russian schools of hydromechanics and aeromechanics. For his work in these areas he became known as the
Father of Russian Aviation
. Zhukovskii
[
1
]
:-
... became interested in the late
1880
s in flight in heavier-than-air machines, a basic problem of which was lift.
During
1890
-
91
he experimented with disks placed in currents of air and, in
1891
, he began to study the dynamics of flight. In
1895
he visited Lilienthal in Berlin. Lilienthal was selling gliders produced in his factory in Berlin. Zhukovskii
[
2
]
:-
... observed several of Lilienthal's flights and was most impressed. After returning to Moscow, he spoke before the Society of Friends of the Natural Sciences: "The most important invention of recent years in the area of aviation is the flying machine of the German engineer Otto Lilienthal.
Zhukovskii purchased one of the eight gliders which Lilienthal sold to members of the public. In
1906
Zhukovskii published two papers in which he gave a mathematical expression for the lift on an airfoil. Today it is known as the
Kutta
-Joukowski theorem, since
Kutta
pointed out that the equation also appears in his
1902
dissertation.
In
1911
Zhukovskii wrote:-
The field of hydrodynamic phenomena which can be explored with exact analysis is more and more increasing.
Zhukovskii was concerned both with theoretical and with experimental aspects of the subject. His theoretical work concentrated on lift, high-speed aerodynamics, vortex theory, longitudinal and cross stability but he complemented this work with appropriate experimental observations in every case. With this twin approach he became the Russian pioneer on both aspects of aviation. He went on to establish an aerodynamics laboratory and to teach courses on his theories of aerodynamics
[
1
]
:-
His lectures at the Moscow Technical School on the theoretical basis of aeronautics
(1911
-
12)
were the world's first systematic course in aviation theory and were based largely on his own theoretical research and on experiments conducted in laboratories that he had established.
In mathematics today the
conformal mapping
of the complex plane
z
?
z
+
z
1
?
is called the Joukowski transformation. This gave Zhukovskii
[
2
]
:-
... a means of designing aerofoils using conformal mappings and the techniques of complex variables. Those Joukowski aerofoils were actually used on some aircraft, and today these techniques provide a mathematically rigorous reference solution to which modern approaches to aerofoil design can be compared for validation.
See
THIS LINK
for more about the aerofoils.
During World War I Zhukovskii taught a special course for pilots and he was the first person in Russia to study the theory of bombing from aeroplanes in
1915
.
In
1918
he organised the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute and became its first head. The Institute was renamed the N E Zhukovskii Academy of Military and Aeronautical Engineering in
1922
following Zhukovskii's death.
Zhukovsky also worked on hydrodynamics and hydraulics, in particular shock waves in water pipes. In particular he solved problems concerning the bursting of pipes with his studies of hydraulic shock. Other problems he considered were the formation of river beds and the construction of dams, where again his expertise was invaluable in constructing power stations.
Zhukovskii's works were published in
25
volumes from
1935
to
1950
.
- A T Grigorian, Biography in
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(
New York
1970
-
1990)
. See
THIS LINK
.
- J D Anderson,
A History of Aerodynamics
(
Cambridge,
1997)
.
- V V Golubev,
Nikolay Egorovich Zhukovsky
(
Moscow,
1947)
.
- A A Kosmodem'yanskii, Nikolaii Egorovich Zhukovskii,
1847
-
1921
(
Russian
)
,
Nauchno- Biograficheskaya Literatura, 'Nauka''
(
Moscow,
1984)
.
- A A Kosmodemyanskii, Essays on the history of mechanics
(
Russian
)
'Nauka'
(
Moscow,
1982)
.
- A T Grigorian, Development of the theoretical foundations of aviation in the work of N E Zhukovsky and S A Chaplygin
(
Russian
)
,
Investigations in the history of mechanics, 'Nauka'
(
Moscow,
1983)
,
183
-
192
.
- A T Grigorian, The elaboration of theoretical foundations of aviation in the works of N E Zhukovsky and S A Chaplygin, in
Revolutionary changes in science and technology at the turn of
19
th and
20
th centuries
(
Prague,
1981)
,
213
-
226
.
- N M Merkulova, N E Zhukovskii -founder of the scientific school of aerodynamics
(
Russian
)
,
Investigations in the history of mechanics, 'Nauka'
(
Moscow,
1981)
,
268
-
292
.
- G Yu Stepanov, Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovskii
(
on the
150
th anniversary of his birth
)
(
Russian
)
, Prikl. Mat. Mekh.
61
(1)
(1997)
,
3
-
11
.
- G Yu Stepanov, Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovskii
(
on the
150
th anniversary of his birth
)
, J. Appl. Math. Mech.
61
(1)
(1997)
,
1
-
8
.
- G Yu Stepanov, Fluid dynamics in the works of N E Joukowski
(
on the
150
th anniversary of his birth
5(17)
.
01
.
1847)
, Fluid Dynam.
32
(2)
(1997)
,
161
-
172
.
- G Yu Stepanov, Fluid dynamics in the works of N E Joukowski
(
on the
150
th anniversary of his birth
5(17)
.
01
.
1847)
(
Russian
)
,
Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk Mekh. Zhidk. Gaza
(2)
(1997)
,
3
-
18
.
- L I Zamyatina, The centenary of N E Zhukovskii's memoir 'On the motion of a rigid body with cavities filled by a homogeneous fluid'
(
Russian
)
,
Istor. Metodol. Estestv. Nauk
32
(1986)
,
176
-
184
.
Additional Resources
(
show
)
Cross-references
(
show
)
Written by
J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update May 2000