FAXÉN

SWEDEN (see also List of Individuals)

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29.3.1892 Näskott/S - 1.6.1970 Stockholm/S

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Hilding Faxén graduated as a mathematician from Uppsala University in 1919 and there submitted a PhD thesis under Carl Wilhelm Oseen (1879-1944). Faxén lectured mathematics and mechanics at Stockholm Technical University from 1921 to 1927, was awarded the title professor in 1927 and there took over in 1930 as professor. He moved in 1934 as professor of mathematics and mechanics to Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg from where he returned in 1935 in the same position to the Stockholm Institution until 1958.

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Faxén is known as an outstanding applied mathematician, who formulated a number of basic equations mainly in hydrodynamics. These relate to the so-called Faxén formula, the Faxén integral, the Faxén laws, the Faxén theorems and the Faxén-Waller theory. The analysis of the motion of a sphere in an incompressible, viscous fluid at low Reynolds numbers, along with its experimental verification is a classical problem of fluid mechanics, both with respect to the fundamental principles and to a variety of technical applications. George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903) addressed this problem analytically in 1845, followed by Oseen who pointed to an inconsistency of Stokes' analysis, and presented a revised formula in 1910. Faxén obtained in 1923 a rigorous analytical solution for the problem to the Stokes' problem of the drag force for a sphere moving parallel with walls bounding the fluid space. His work has resolved also some conflicting features of the Oseen theory and presents an interpretation of theoretical models involving a viscous fluid.

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_{Anonymous (1944). Olov Hilding Fáxen. Svenska män och kvinnor 2: 408. Bonniers: Stockholm. P}

_{Faxén, H. (1923). Die Bewegung einer starren Kugel längs der Achse eines mit zäher Flüssigkeit gefüllten Rohres. Arkiv för Matematik, Astronomi och Fysik 17(27): 1-28.}

_{Faxén, H. (1927). Der Widerstand gegen die Bewegung einer starren Kugel in einer zähen Flüssigkeit, die zwischen zwei parallelen ebenen Wänden eingeschlossen ist. Arkiv för Matematik, Astronomi och Fysik 19A(22): 1-10.}

_{Faxén, H. (1929). Konvergenzuntersuchungen zu G.I. Taylors Abhandlung über die Stabilität der Bewegung einer zähen Flüssigkeit zwischen zwei rotierenden Zylindern. Arkiv för Matematik och Fysik 21(26): 1-11.}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1936). Faxén, Olov Hilding. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch}

_{6: 712; 7b: 1340; 8: 1103-1104. Verlag Chemie: Leipzig, Berlin, with bibliography.}