Nikolai Zhukovsky
Encyclopedia
Orekhovo (rural locality)
Orekhovo is the name of several rural localities in Russia:*Orekhovo, Altai Krai, a selo in Burlinsky District of Altai Krai*Orekhovo, Belgorod Oblast, a selo in Valuysky District of Belgorod Oblast...
, Vladimir Governorate – March 17, 1921, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n scientist, founding father of modern aero-
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
and hydrodynamics. Whereas contemporary scientists scoffed at the idea of human flight, Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow.
His name is usually romanised as Joukovsky or Joukowsky in the literature. See for example Joukowsky transform
Joukowsky transform
In applied mathematics, the Joukowsky transform, named after Nikolai Zhukovsky, is a conformal map historically used to understand some principles of airfoil design.The transform is...
(also Kutta-Schukowski transform), Kutta–Joukowski theorem
Kutta–Joukowski theorem
The Kutta–Joukowski theorem is a fundamental theorem of aerodynamics. It is named after the German Martin Wilhelm Kutta and the Russian Nikolai Zhukovsky who first developed its key ideas in the early 20th century. The theorem relates the lift generated by a right cylinder to the speed of the...
and so on.
Zhukovsky was born in the village of Orekhovo, Vladimir Governorate, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. He graduated from Moscow University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
in 1868. From 1872 he was a professor at the Imperial Technical School. He established the world's first Aerodynamic Institute in 1904 in Kachino near Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. From 1918 he was the head of TsAGI
TsAGI
TsAGI is a transliteration of the Russian abbreviation for Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т or "Tsentralniy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut", the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute....
(Central AeroHydroDynamics Institute).
He was the first scientist to explain mathematically the origin of aerodynamic lift
Lift (force)
A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a surface force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the surface force parallel to the flow direction...
, through his circulation hypothesis, the first to dimension the lift force generated by a body moving through an ideal fluid as proportional to the velocity and the circulation around the body, and through a mathematical conformal transformation the first to define the shape of the aerodynamic profile having as essential elements a rounded nose (leading edge), double surface (finite thickness), cambered or straight, and a sharp tail (trailing edge). He built the first wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
in Russia.
He is also responsible for the eponymous water hammer
Water hammer
Water hammer is a pressure surge or wave resulting when a fluid in motion is forced to stop or change direction suddenly . Water hammer commonly occurs when a valve is closed suddenly at an end of a pipeline system, and a pressure wave propagates in the pipe...
equation used by civil engineers. This is usually known as the Joukowsky equation.
A city near Moscow and the crater Zhukovskiy
Zhukovskiy (crater)
Zhukovskiy is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. It forms a pair with Lebedinskiy, which is attached to the eastern rim. There are no other named craters of note in the immediate vicinity, although the immense walled plain Korolev lies farther to the southeast.The rim of...
on the Moon are named in his honor.