Professor Georgi Vladimirovich Vinogradov, Sc.D., Honored Scientist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, a prominent authority in physical chemistry, lubrication, friction and the mechanics of polymers, was born in Moscow on January 27, 1910.
After graduation from the Moscow Higher Technical School (Chemical Engineering Department) in 1932, G.V. Vinogradov taught physical and colloid chemistry at the Military Chemical Academy; then his teaching career took him to the Armored Forces Academy where he presented a course in materials science for several years as head of the chair of chemistry. In 1944-45 G.V. Vinogradov fought against German fascists. From 1951 and to the end of his days G.V. Vinogradov worked at the Institute of Petroleum (since 1960 - the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis) Russian Academy of Sciences.
In the thirties and forties, when computer-aided calculations were in their infancy and no high-speed computers were available, G.V. Vinogradov was heavily involved in application of nomographic calculation methods in physical chemistry. He had published a number of atlases, including the "Atlas of Nomograms in Physical Chemistry" which was widely acclaimed in the USSR and the USA and has become a definite work on physicochemical calculations. Many of G.V. Vinogradov's nomograms have been used in textbooks and monographs by various authors. In this field, G.V. Vinogradov has earned the reputation of a versatile physical chemist.
Immediately after the war, G.V, Vinogradov embarked upon research into the rheology of lubricant greases. He developed new methods and devices with the aid of which he has been able to strain such systems in the range of shear rates varying within 10 to 12 orders of magnitude. During a discussion at the Conference on Lubrication and Wear (London, 1957), his first results concerning the wear-resistance properties of greases were reported. At the International Congress on Rheology (Oyenhausen, FRG, 1958), G.V. Vinogradov delivered a paper summarizing the rheological characteristics of greases, later published in "Rheologica Acta" (vol. 1, No. 4/6, pp.455-470, 470-490, 1958). An updated version of the same concept appeared in "Lubrication Engineering" (1965, No. 11, pp. 479-484). The application of electron microscopy and the photo-elastic method has led to discovery of new phenomena, such as formation of anisotropic structures frozen in time and phase transitions in electric fields, which has given a better insight into the structural features of greases. The results of these studies were published in "Journal of the Institute of Petroleum" (No.455, pp.357-364, 1961; No.514, pp.279-284, 1966). This work forms the basis of his thesis for doctor of Science's degree "A study into the Rheology of Lubricant Greases", defended in 1951 at the Petroleum Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1952, G.V. Vinogradov was given the academic title of Professor.
In the mid fifties, G.V. Vinogradov was engaged in fundamental studies into the lubricating action of petroleum products and synthetic oils.
Using chromatographic separation of petroleum products into fractions according to their chemical composition (naphthene-paraffin and low-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were separated from petroleum oils along with resin fractions), G.V. Vinogradov was the first to investigate the friction and wear of steel as a function of lubricant composition. The gas phase was found to produce a strong effect on the lubricating power of lubricant. This was an important discovery: it was revealed that the lubricating power of lubricants depends on their oxygen content. In his studies of the lubricating power of petroleum oils, G.V. Vinogradov for the first time applied the tracer method to elucidate the interaction between additives and steel. It was established that organophosphorus additives form surface compounds already at room and lower temperatures, while organosulfur compounds are effective only at elevated temperatures. The results of these studies were for the first time reported at the Conference on Lubrication and Wear (London, 1957); then published as a long series of papers in "Wear".
Studies into the lubricating power of lubricants yielded a laboratory setup for examining the friction and wear of steel in an extremely broad range of sliding speeds (from 1*10-8 to 1 m/s), which has made it possible to discover a number of radically new phenomena occurring in the case of friction of hardened steels in the range of ultralow sliding speeds, such as cold seizure. This work was reported at the International Conference on Lubrication (Washington, 1964) and in "Wear" (vol.10, Nî. 5, pp. 338-352, 1967). It was acclaimed by prominent specialists in friction and wear. The simultaneously carried out studies of mixtures of polyorganosiloxanes with hydrocarbon oils have shown their excellent wear resistance and antifriction properties. The conditions under which they are most effective were defined. The results were presented at the International Conference on Lubrication (Washington, 1964). The main results of G.V. Vinogradov's work in friction and wear were summarized in the paper presented at the Conference on Lubrication and Wear (London, 1967). In recognition of this cycle of researches the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK) awarded him in 1983 the Tribology Gold Medal.
In the early sixties, G.V. Vinogradov turned his attention to the rheology of polymer systems.
He started studying polymers beginning with their friction behavior. As was established in a series of experiments, the wear and friction of polymers, just as of metals, are to a great extent dependent on the oxygen content in the gas phase and on the sliding speed, particularly in the low and ultralow speed range ("Wear", vol. 5, No. 6, pp. 467-477, 1962; vol. 8, No. 5, ðp. 358-373, 1965; vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 213-219, 1970; vol. 23, No. I, pp. 33-38, 1973; "Rheologica Acta", vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 277-285, 1968).
In 1963 he set up a laboratory of polymer rheology which has become a leading institution not only in the Soviet Union but also worldwide. In this laboratory fundamental research of viscoelastic properties of polymers has been conducted, which has made it possible to define universal characteristics for a quantitative assessment of their behavior at various temperatures and intensities of external factors, which are widely used in practical calculations of deformation processes.
In the late sixties, G.V. Vinogradov concentrated the efforts of his laboratory on systematic studies into the viscoelastic properties of monodisperse samples of different homologous series of carbon- and heterochain polymers. These studies were followed by investigation of mixtures with different molecular weight distributions, serving as models of commercially produced polymers. The result was solution of such a fundamental problem as determination of the limiting conditions of deformation and states of polymers at temperatures exceeding the glass-transition point. Conditions have been found under which the polymer passes from the fluid to high-elastic (rubbery-quasi-cured) state. It was found that in this state the flow of polymer systems gives way to their slipping with respect to the boundary walls. Simple relations have been established between the cohesion and adhesion properties of polymers on the one hand and their molecular characteristics on the other. These phenomena are highly important in polymer processing.
G.V. Vinogradov and coworkers published a great number of papers on rheology. In 1980, the USSR Academy of Sciences awarded him the Lebedev Prize (S.V. Lebedev is founder of the synthetic rubber industry in the Soviet Union) - the highest award for polymer research.
G.V. Vinogradov supervised the development of many original methods of determining the viscoelastic characteristics of high-molecular compounds, that have been adopted by research institutes and the industry.
G.V. Vinogradov has founded a school of rheological research. He has supervised and assisted in the writing of 10 Sc.D's and 62 Ph.D's theses. More than 500 published papers, including several monographs and 26 inventions, can be placed to his credit. The most important monograph was written in cooperation with Prof. A.Ya.Malkin under the title "Rheology of Polymers" (Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1980). This book became widely known and was highly acclaimed by such outstanding authorities in the physical chemistry and mechanics of polymers as H. Mark, R. Bird, W. Graessley (USA), J. Pearson (England), and H. Janeschitz-Kriegl (Austria).
G.V. Vinogradov was an active organizer of science and social worker; he was a permanent chairman of the organizing committee of all-union symposia and schools on rheology, editorial board member of four international journals ("Wear", "Rheologica Acta", "H. of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics", "J. of Polymeric Materials"), member of the British Society of Rheology and represented the Soviet Union in the International Council on Friction and Lubrication. G.V. Vinogradov often gave presentations at plenary sessions of the IUPAC symposia on macromolecules.
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It was with great sadness and regret that I learned recently of the death of Georgi Vladimirovich Vinogradov. He was appointed a member of the Editorial Board of Wear in 1970, and in spite of severe illness in his later years, remained on the Board for the rest of his life.
Vinogradov was born into a distinguished Russian family in 1910. He was educated at the Moscow Technological University and after the War embarked on research into the physical chemistry and rheology of lubricants and greases. It was primarily this work which later earned him the Tribology Gold Medal of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, awarded in 1983. In the sixties he moved into the field of polymer rheology at the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis and it was here that he established his outstanding reputation as an original and creative worker in the field of rheology. This received recognition from the Soviet Academy of Sciences which, in 1980, bestowed on him their highest award, the Lebedev Prize. His scientific work thus covered both lubrication and polymer flow and he excelled in both. He served with distinction in the Soviet Tank Corps throughout World War II in some of the bitterest and coldest phases of the war.
I first met Vinogradov when he visited Britain in 1957 during the Khrushchov thaw and I was immediately won over by his charm, his wit and his intelligence. We established an excellent rapport which we renewed whenever we met and which we sustained by correspondence over the years. Apart from his professional achievements there were many aspects of his life that one could only learn from his own lips. He once confided to us at dinner in Cambridge that his father had been Stalin's personal physician. He had been accused during the last phase of Stalin's paranoia of attempting to poison the Soviet leader. If Stalin had not died, so Vinogradov told us, his father would have been shot, his family sent into exile and the children dispersed into various orphanages. Although Vinogradov did not enlarge on the theme this experience must have coloured much of his view of the Soviet establishment. He was critical of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops in the days of the Dubcek "spring" and sometimes expressed rather quizzical, if discreet, remarks about life in the Soviet Union. Occasionally, I would broach some political issue on which he knew I had strong feelings: he would then stop speaking in English and speak in Russian in carefully chosen words, ending with the phrase "More I will not say".
I used to write to him, with some labour, in Russian and he would reply in either language. I treasure in particular the Russian letter he sent me after I had congratulated him on the award of the Tribology Gold Medal: it expressed great warmth and friendliness. He mentioned his illness in surprisingly optimistic terms. "I suffer from Parkinson's disease", he wrote, "but I am not downcast as there is a great deal of work going on and it seems to me that it is productive. I have marvellous colleagues and they give me great support." He referred to the award of the Tribology Gold Medal and the great moral satisfaction it gave him. But there was a rather wistful note at the end. "The work for which it was awarded was carried out by me because of my great enthusiasm for the subject: but it did not meet with official, support and, finally, I had to leave this field and engage completely in research on polymers." Needless to add that the new field proved as successful as the old.
Vinogradov died in April 1988. He was devoted to his motherland and to his cultural heritage: he was a true Russian in the sense portrayed by Yevtushenko in his poem "Babi Yar". He was an outstanding scientist and marvellous company. We are all the poorer for his passing.
David Tabor
University of Cambridge Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory
Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 OHE. U.K.