SOKOLOVSKY

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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17.10.1912 Kharkov/RU - 8.1.1978 Moscow/RU

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Vadim Vasilievich Sokolovsky graduated from the Civil Engineering Institute of Moscow University in 1933. He remained all through his professional career in Moscow where he passed away much to early. He was elected Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1946 and Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1959. He was also awarded twice the Soviet State Prize and received the Stalin Prizes in 1943 and in 1952. As a Member of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics IUTAM he was involved in its activities both in the Soviet Union and abroad. Sokolovsky was also associated with the Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the Inzhenernyi Zhurnal of the Soviet Union, and the Archives de Mécanique de Sols, Warsaw, Poland.

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During his career of thirty years, Sokolovsky mainly investigated problems of two types: Theory of plasticity and groundwater flows. For the latter he analyzed the stability of soil and the distribution of pressure based on the theory of limiting equilibrium state for porous media. These results had a direct impact on the stability of engineering foundations and the foundation techniques of earth dams. Until then, the theory of the sliding surface as introduced by Nikolai Nikolaevich Pavlovsky (1884-1937) was mainly applied. Sokolovsky modified this engineering approach by considering a porous medium on which the theory of limiting equilibrium was formulated to define the limiting amount of load under which the soil failed. He thereby based his considerations on a generalized form of plastic materials. Sokolovsky thus was able to point to the close relationship between soil mechanics, porous medium and foundation engineering.

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_{Anonymous (1963). V.V. Sokolovsky. Archiwum Mechaniki Stosowanej 15(4): 458-461. P}

_{Chowley, E.L. (1968). Sokolovsky, Vadim Vasilievich. Prominent personalities in the USSR:}

_{595. Scarecrow: Metuchen NJ.}

_{Schulz, H.E., Taylor, S.S., eds. (1962). Sokolovsky, Vadim Vasilevich. Who's who in the USSR: 727. Intercontinental Book and Publishing: Montreal.}

_{Sokolovsky, V.V. (1950). The theory of plasticity. Moscow (in Russian).}

_{Sokolovsky, V.V. (1963). Equilibrium of granular medium of variable weight. Moscow (in Russian).}

_{Sokolovsky, V.V. (1965). Statics of granular media. Pergamon Press: Oxford, New York. Turkevich, J. (1963). Sokolovsky, D.D. Soviet men of science: 371. van Nostrand: New York.}