ESMAN

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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1.12.1876 Minsk/BY - 30.6.1955 Baku/RU

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Iosif Gavrilovich Esman originated from Byelo-Russia. He graduated in 1892 from the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute and in 1902 started as a Lecturer at the later Leningrad Polytechnic Institute LPI, where he was appointed professor of hydraulic engineering in 1913. He had there been involved from 1905 to 1912 in the foundation of the hydraulic laboratory and in hydraulic modeling. Esman was elected dean of the mechanical faculty in 1917 and in 1918 was also in Tbilisi a vice-director of a large industrial scheme of Transcaucasia. In 1922 he moved as a professor of hydraulics to the Azerbaidzhan Polytechnic Institute in Baku and there was in addition a consultant of the petroleum industry. From 1923 to 1926, Esman chaired the Baku Institute of the Russian Technical Society. Three years later he returned to LPI as the head of the Hydraulics Institute. He was in parallel all through his life related to the petroleum activities of the Baku region and acted also as the chairman of the Transcaucasian Water Council. In 1941, he initiated the Energetic Institute of the Azerbaidzhan Academy of Sciences and eventually became its director. Today, this Institute is named after Esman.

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After having founded the LPI hydraulic laboratory in 1905, Esman conducted experiments involving the flow of high viscosity fluids through localized constrictions, turbulent pipe flows, and he proposed analytical methods for the design of centrifugal pumps. He thus established the concept of hydrodynamic drag. He was also interested in gas flows relating to metallurgical ovens. These results received international recognition. Esman was then in charge of large petroleum pipelines and designs of pumping stations. Further results were elaborated in the 1928 publication relating to pumps for oils, and investigations on the use of deep well pumps for petroleum and clay slurry pipelines.

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_{Esman, I.G. (1945). Local resistances under the movement of mud. Proc. Geology Institute, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (7): 41-48 (in Russian).}

_{Melua, A.I. (2001). Esman, Iosif Gavrilovich. Energetics of Russia: 141. Humanistica: Moscow, Saint Petersburg (in Russian).}

_{Togonidze, V.R. (1968). Legacy of Prof. I.G. Esman. Hydrotechnical Construction 1: 1115-1116. P}

_{Zvorykin, A.A., ed. (1958). Time, Iosif G. Biografichesky slovar 1: 334. Gos. Izd. 2: Moskva. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/42_folder/42_articles/42_azeracademy.html P}