KEULEGAN

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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12.7.1890 Sebastia-Sivas/TR - 28.7.1989 Vicksburg MI/USA

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Garbis H. Keulegan was born in Armenia in today's Turkey. He left his home country in 1912 for the USA and started as an engineer at Ohio State University but graduated as a mathematician in 1915. He joined the American Forces in 1918 as a translator and returned to the USA, where he started as a physicist at the National Bureau of Standards NBS in 1921. Until retirement in 1962, he was there primarily engaged as an expert in soil mechanics. He submitted a PhD thesis in 1928 to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD.

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Keulegan's interest in hydrodynamics started with the inauguration of the National Hydraulic Laboratory established at NBS. He was one of the three staff members and greatly contributed with by now classic papers on turbulent flow in open channels, roll wave formation, water wave theory and flow in curved pipes. During World War II Keulegan was mainly active for the Beach Erosion Board in connection with the Allied Landing in France. He thus developed the theory of tides, the water wave theory and furnished information relating to the prediction of sea currents. His famous 1948 report was one of the few that remained unclassified. After the war the NBS was asked to furnish information towards the basic laws of similitude involving density currents and the mixing of salt with fresh waters. Keulegan investigated both questions thoroughly and presented classic papers relating to the lock exchange experiments. His results on wave propagation and density currents were published in the 1949 book of Rouse and the 1966 book of Ippen, respectively. Keulegan was awarded a number of prestigious decorations, including the National Medal of Science, Honorary Membership of ASCE, and in 1979 election to the National Academy of Engineering.

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_{Anonymous (1969). Garbis H. Keulegan. Civil Engineering 39(10): 81. P}

_{Anonymous (1992). Garbis Hvannes Keulegan. Trans. ASCE 157: 506-507.}

_{Ippen, A.T., ed. (1966). Estuary and coastline hydrodynamics. McGraw-Hill: New York. Kennedy, J.F. (1991). Garbis H. Keulegan: A physicist's long life in hydraulics. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 117(12): 1575-1587. P}

_{Keulegan, G.H., Patterson, G.W. (1940). A criterion for instability of flow in steep channels. Trans. American Geophysical Union 21: 594-596.}

_{Keulegan, G.H. (1948). An experimental study of submarine sand bars. Technical Report 3, Committee on Tidal Hydraulics. US Army Corps of Engineers: Washington DC.}

_{Rouse, H., ed. (1949). Engineering hydraulics. John Wiley & Sons: New York.}