Dmitri Ivanovich Schurawski

Dmitri Ivanovich Schurawski

Dmitri Ivanovich Schurawski ( Russian Дмитрий Иванович Журавский ; born December 17, ^jul. / 29. December  1821 ^greg. In Bely Kolodes at Shchigry , † November 18 ^jul. / 30th November  1891 ^greg. In St. Petersburg ) was a Russian physicist and bridge construction - engineering .

Life

Schurawski attended the Physikalisch - Mathematische Besborodko -Gymnasium in Nischyn . During his school days he was particularly interested in applied mathematics and mechanics . After graduation, he entered the Institute of Traffic Engineering Corps (later St. Petersburg University of Transportation Engineering) in 1838 and became a student of mathematician MW Ostrogradski . In 1842 he graduated from the top of his class with distinction and his name on the marble plaque.

After completing his studies, Schurawski was employed by the Northern Directorate of the Nikolaibahn and worked on the planning, design and construction of this first long-distance railway in Russia, from which the Russian railway network was created. The construction of this runway, for which the straight variant was chosen, required the construction of 184 bridges , 69 stone and cast iron tubes and 19 connecting ramps . The construction of the bridges (according to the Howe system ) was led by the US railroad engineer George Washington Whistler .

Since at that time trusses like those used for the bridges could not be theoretically calculated, PP Melnikow commissioned Schurawski in 1844 to study the properties of truss bridges according to the Howe system . Through his theoretical and experimental investigations, Schurawski found that when the load on the cantilever beam is uniform over the length, the mechanical stress in the neutral surface of the cantilever beam is not constant, but increases from the free end. In the course of his research he was the first to develop a general method for calculating trusses with parallel chords. This enabled him to review and improve the Howe system . The result was the scientifically based calculation of bridge frameworks in 1850. Schurawski's work was supported by the work of the French mathematician and engineer JA Bresse . Schurawski's proposals were implemented by Whistler for all bridges on this railway line. The largest railway bridges on the Nikolai Railway were designed and built under Schurawski's direction. Schurawski's work Over the Bridges according to the Howe system , on which he had worked for 10 years, was presented in the competition of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1854 and was awarded the Great Demidow Prize in 1855 . The formula he derived for the shear stress in a sheared rod is known as the Schurawski shear stress formula .

In 1855 Shuravsky was in charge of planning the railway line from Moscow to Oryol . 1857-1858 he carried out together with PP Melnikow and the architect K. A. Thon the redesign of the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg , the wooden structure of which was replaced by a metal structure. The high quality iron used was manufactured according to the method of the metallurgist A. A. Iossa . Because of his work, Schurawski was appointed colonel in the traffic engineer corps .

As one of his last bridge construction works, Schurawski restored the burned down Msta bridge near Malaja Wischera in 1869 . In the same year he was sent to the United States to study railroad engineering . On his return he became a member of the Council of the Controlling Company of the Russian Railways , of which he was Vice-President for several years. At the same time he headed the construction department of the Imperial Technical Society , on whose records he worked. In 1873 he took part in the work of the International Statistics Congress in St. Petersburg as the spokesman for the Ministry of Transport and was elected Vice President of Commercial Statistics.

1871–1876 Shurawski took part in the redesign of the Volga-Baltic Sea Canal and led the planning of the Ladoga Canal , the St. Petersburg Sea Canal and the Libau Harbor. During this time he investigated the strength of wood under different types of load and that of rails at low temperatures. 1877–1889 he was director of the railway department, in which the technical inspection committee was directly subordinate to him. During this time he carried out a number of important measures aimed at increasing the transport capacity of the Russian railways. 1883-1889 he was also a member of the Council of the Ministry of Transport (since 1886 Council for Railway Affairs).

Shurawski was buried in the Mitrofan cemetery in St. Petersburg.

literature

• EN Rakcheev: Dmitrii Ivanovich Zharavskii (on the Occasion of the One-Hundred-And-Fiftieth Anniversary of His Birth ) . Soviet Applied Mechanics 8 No. 1 (1972), pp. 99-101 (translation by Prikladnaya Mekhanika) and pp. 126-128 (accessed April 6, 2016)
• Ralf Roth, Marie-Noëlle Polino: The City and the Railway in Europe . Ashgate Publishing 2003, ISBN 978-0-7546-0766-3 , pp. 87ff
• Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium , Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 449, p. 955 and p. 1084 (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ AN Bogolyubov: mathematician, mechanic. A biographical lexicon . Naumkowa Dumka, Kiev 1983, pp. 186-187 (Russian).
2. ↑ Brockhaus-Efron : Schurawski, Dmitri Iwanowitsch . St. Petersburg 1890–1907 (Russian, accessed April 6, 2016).
3. ↑ AN Bogolyubov, IS Schtokalo (ed.): History of mechanics in Russia . Naukowa Dumka, Kiev 1987, pp. 161-190 (Russian).
4. ↑ Great Soviet Encyclopedia : Zhuravskii, Dmitrii Ivanovich . Moscow 1969–1978 (English translation, accessed April 5, 2016).
5. ^ ND Moisejew: Essays on the history of the development of mechanics . Moscow University Publishing House , Moscow 1961, p. 366 (Russian).
6. ↑ Boris Oskin: Petersburg Americans ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Russian, accessed April 6, 2016). 
7. ↑ Schurawski Formula Lecture (Russian, accessed April 6, 2016).
8. ↑ Mechanical Engineering Lectures: Flexure of Beams ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . McMaster University (accessed April 6, 2016).