Leonid Ivanovich Sedov

Born Nov. 1 (14), 1907, in Rostov-on-Don. Soviet scientist in the fields of mechanics and applied mathematics. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953; corresponding member, 1946). Hero of Socialist Labor (1967).

Sedov graduated from Moscow State University in 1930. From 1930 to 1947 he was on the staff of the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute. He became a professor at Moscow State University in 1937 and in 1945 also joined the staff of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Sedov’s most important work has been in hydromechanics, aeromechanics, and continuum mechanics. He gave solutions for the problem of the impact of bodies against water and the problem of hydroplaning. Sedov derived equations of aerodynamic forces and moments for deformable wings and solved a number of problems concerning the nonsteady motion of a wing around which there flows a fluid with a continuous or discontinuous velocity field. He investigated the potential flow of a gas around profiles and cascades. Sedov developed techniques of similarity theory and applied the techniques to the study of the attenuation of turbulent flows and to the investigation of self-similar motions of fluids. The problem of a strong explosion and a number of other problems of gas dynamics were solved by him. Sedov proposed new models of a continuous medium that take into account thermodynamic and electrodynamic effects; he developed a method of finding the equations of motion and boundary conditions on the basis of a variational principle that he formulated.

Sedov became chairman of the Scientific Council on Liquid and Gas Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1965. He was president of the International Astronautical Federation in 1961 and 1962. Sedov has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, two other orders, various medals, and the French Order of the Legion of Honor. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1952.

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