FAKTOROVICH

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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17.4.1912 Zapadnaya Dvina/RU - 11.9.1971 Leningrad/RU

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Miron Emmanuilovich Faktorovich was born in the Kalininskaya region and was from 1936 a hydraulic engineer at VNIIG once having graduated as a civil engineer from Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. He submitted there a PhD thesis in 1940 and was then a scientific collaborator of the Leningrad Hydraulics Laboratory VNIIG. Promoted to chief engineer in 1952 he passed his entire career until retirement in 1971 in Leningrad as a hydraulic engineer.

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Faktorovich was an expert in open channel and pipe flows, and in river engineering. His favorite topic was unsteady pipe flow as occur under temporal changes of any flow parameter. The resulting water hammer waves may be dangerous particularly as regards low pressure generation that may be so small that cavitation damage occurs. Pipelines may be destroyed due to such fast pressure peaks that propagate along an entire pipeline system, provided no particular safety elements are inserted. Faktorovich applied his knowledge to the Chirkeyskaya hydropower scheme where the problem was difficult to solve because of limited space. He was later also involved in the power stations of Chirchik, Kamenogorsk and Vilyuisk. Later, Faktorovich was interested in open channel hydraulics and may be considered the father of the counter-current energy dissipator. Usually, excess energy in dam structures is dissipated with stilling basins in which a hydraulic jump is essentially kept within a certain basin. Faktorovich explored means to reduce the structural length by counter-current jets issued at the basin bottom. His proposal has not been adopted in the West, however, mainly because of the high degree of instability added and the relatively small gain as compared to additional expenses. Faktorovich also investigated hydraulic and sediment characteristics at open channel junctions, a research topic developed only recently in Western Europe.

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_{Anonymous (1972). M.E. Faktorovich. Hydrotechnical Construction 42(2): 59-60. P}

_{Faktorovich, M.E. (1947). Non-uniform free surface flow in prismatic ducts. Izvestiya VNIIG}

_{32: 45-57 (in Russian).}

_{Faktorovich, M.E. (1952). The stilling basin with auto energy dissipation. Izvestiya VNIIG 48: 196-212 (in Russian).}

_{Faktorovich, M.E. (1958). Flume junctions - Investigation between branch flows and the effect of vertical steps. Izvestiya VNIIG 61: 17-30 (in Russian).}

_{Faktorovich, M.E. (1965). On the equation of river bed transformations. Izvestiya VNIIG 78 (in Russian).}