Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
Meeting of students of Novosibirsk State University with the grandson of the founder of Akademgorodok, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor, Dean Faculty of Information Technology NSU Mikhail Mikhailovich Lavrentyev was held on April 4. It was dedicated to fascinating facts from the life of the founder of Akademgorodok, the academician, and was called “Scientific discoveries of academician Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev. From mathematics, mechanics and physics of explosions to the first computers.”
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Soviet mathematician and mechanic, founder of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev. Residents of Akademgorodok cherish his memory. Currently, his name is borne by the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the SUNC (Physics and Mathematics School) of NSU, Lyceum No. 130, an auditorium at NSU…. A monument to the academician was erected on the avenue named in his honor.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Lavrentyev began the meeting by listing the most important scientific achievements of Mikhail Alekseevich: the Lavrentyev effect in variational calculus, the lifting force of an airplane wing, conformal and quasi-comfort mappings, explanation of the cumulative effect, the first artillery nuclear shell, the first domestic computers, new materials – explosion welding, acceleration of particles to cosmic speeds, saving genetics, the fight for the purity of Lake Baikal, saving the city of Almaty (Kazakhstan) from a mudflow – the Medeu dam, the creation of new types of universities – PhysTech and NSU, the organization of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And then he spoke in detail about some of them.
Important contribution to the Victory
Among the numerous awards of M.A. Lavrentyev is the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, which he was awarded in 1944. This Order was awarded to participants in military operations, but Mikhail Alekseevich was one of the few exceptions. He did not directly participate in the battles of the Great Patriotic War and was not at the front, but he made a significant contribution to the Great Victory as a talented scientist. The cumulative charges he developed became one of the factors that influenced the outcome of the Battle of Kursk (July 5 – August 23, 1943).
— Previously, cumulative antitank aerial bombs were quite large in size, and domestic IL2 attack aircraft could take only a few of them on board, respectively, the maximum possible number of armored targets to be hit was also small. M.A. Lavrentyev proposed his own solution to the problem — the creation of a new generation of cumulative antitank aerial bombs, loaded into cassettes of 78 pieces. Lavrentyev’s PTABs were produced in Ufa, at the Prommetiz artel evacuated from Dnepropetrovsk. Each bomb weighed 2.5 kg and pierced up to 70 mm of armor with a cumulative pestle. This was enough to defeat the most protected Wehrmacht tanks: the armor thickness of the Panther on the turret was no more than 16 mm, and that of the Tiger — 28 mm. The PTABs from Ufa were first used in the Battle of Kursk, and they had a very worthy effect on the fascists – several hundred tanks were destroyed by air strikes, said M.M. Lavrentyev.
It is important that instead of several heavy 100-kilogram anti-tank aerial bombs (PTAB), the IL2 attack aircraft carried 4 cassettes with 78 PTABs in each, which it literally “sprinkled” on German tanks from a height of 25 m. This ensured greater precision in the bombing strike and the safety of the aircraft itself, reducing to zero the risk of being shot down by the explosion of its own aerial bombs.
Lavrentyev’s PTABs had another important advantage: unlike conventional aerial bombs made of expensive high-strength steel with a complex fuse, PTABs could theoretically be produced even in a wooden case. Therefore, they could be manufactured not at specialized factories, but in the most primitive conditions.
The first nuclear artillery shell
In the early 1950s, M. A. Lavrentyev was involved in the development of atomic weapons in the USSR. Work on the first domestic artillery nuclear projectile involved solving complex theoretical and experimental problems in hydrodynamics and gas dynamics, and preparing their solutions was a complex mathematical problem in itself. M. A. Lavrentyev was known as a major specialist in hydro- and gas dynamics, an outstanding mathematician, the founder of the theory of cumulative projectiles, and a well-known specialist in the use of explosives. Therefore, in 1953, he was transferred from the post of director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering to KB-11 (Arzamas-16, now the city of Sarov) to the post of deputy chief designer of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building, which he held for two and a half years. During this time, M. A. Lavrentyev managed to create a creative team of young and talented specialists. Among them were Lev Vasilyevich Ovsyannikov, Dmitry Vasilyevich Shirkov, Vladimir Mikhailovich Titov and Bogdan Vyacheslavovich Voitsekhovsky. They later followed their leader to Akademgorodok and became academicians.
— M.A. Lavrentyev’s scientific group faced a very difficult task: the projectile had to be compact in size compared to the products that had been created in this design bureau earlier, since they were to be used to load guns. At the same time, the projectile had to experience high overloads while maintaining combat capability. And these overloads were thousands of times greater than those typical for aerial bombs. Other difficulties arose, but the scientific team managed to successfully overcome them, and in 1956, an artillery shell with a nuclear charge successfully passed tests at the Semipalatinsk test site. As M.M. Lavrentyev said, the size of the projectile was still too large, so a gun of the corresponding caliber was specially made for it. Nowadays, similar weapons are installed on modern tanks, — M.M. Lavrentyev said.
The first domestic computer
In the 1950s, M.A. Lavrentyev took direct part in the creation of the first Soviet computer. At that time, he was the director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering of the Academy of Sciences, where the first computer, called BESM-1 (the first large electronic calculating machine), was being developed. But when performing this complex task, its developers faced competition from the relevant ministry, which at the same time was working on the creation of the Strela computer.
— The competitors had many advantages, the most important of which was the financing of the work. In addition, 150 electron tubes were required to create BESM, which was a serious problem — about 100 tubes were issued per quarter to the entire Academy of Sciences, and it was impossible to acquire them in any other way. This issue was resolved thanks to the ingenuity of Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev, who is now considered the founder of domestic electronic computing technology. In 1950, he was invited to the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow by M.A. Lavrentyev. They went to the Minister of Radio Industry and asked: “Do consumers of tubes have many complaints against you?” He answered: “Yes, a lot. I believe that in most cases, tubes fail due to the fault of consumers.” Then S.A. Lebedev suggested: “Give us 150 lamps, we will have them in continuous operation, and we will inform you every month that the lamps are working well, and you will replace those lamps that burn out with new ones. The minister agreed, and the problem was solved,” M.M. Lavrentyev said.
Tests of both machines were conducted in 1953. The advantages were again on the side of the competitors. All units of the new memory designed by S.A. Lebedev were addressed to the “Strela” by the decision from above, therefore the creators of BESM had to make the computer memory on the acoustic principle. This reduced its performance by 15-20 times. In addition, the chairman of the acceptance committee was the manager who had already created his own computing center for the “Strela”. And the first test results did not speak in favor of BESM. But M.A. Lavrentyev drew attention to the fact that one of the test tasks did not make sense. On this basis, he insisted on postponing the acceptance for six months and providing the BESM developers with units designed by S.A. Lebedev.
— BESM was being improved for six months, after which it demonstrated significantly higher productivity: it solved all tasks assigned to it 5-8 times faster than Strela. In the competition between the two companies, the winner was not the one that had enough funds, people, and space, but the one that had progressive ideas. And BESM-1 became the predecessor of a series of domestic digital computers, — explained M.M. Lavrentyev.
Throwing soil by explosion
M.A. Lavrentyev made a significant contribution to saving the city of Almaty (Kazakhstan) from mudflows, which posed a serious danger. One of the evidences of this is the Issyk disaster that occurred on July 7, 1963. Then the mudflow caused the death of one and a half hundred Almaty residents.
— Only one gorge was dangerous for mudflows. And it was proposed to create a protective dam in it by means of directed explosions. Several years before that, an article by several scientists, including M.A. Lavrentyev, was published in the journal “Applied Mechanics and Technical Physics” about the directed throwing of soil using explosives. This idea was implemented in this unique project, — said M.M. Lavrentyev.
In 1964, the Kazakh branch of the Hydroproject Institute developed a project for a gravity rock-fill dam. Taking into account the experience of the 1963 mudflow, its design was significantly strengthened. M.A. Lavrentyev was among the scientific consultants of the project. As a result, for the first time in world practice, a 110-meter-high dam was created using directed explosions. The task was complicated by the terrain and seismic features of the area, but the creators of the dam coped – it withstood the mudflow that occurred shortly after the end of the work. To this day, the dam created by explosions protects Almaty from destructive mudflows.
The students also learned how M.M. Lavrentyev managed to save the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences from closure at a time when genetics was considered pseudoscience and was persecuted. They were also told about his other significant scientific achievements. However, M.M. Lavrentyev noted that Mikhail Alekseevich considered the creation of the NSU Physics and Mathematics School and the Young Technicians Club to be the most significant thing in his life. For him, the involvement of talented youth in scientific work was of primary importance.
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