Aleksey Lykov is one of the prominent Soviet scientists in thermophysics who dealt with the fundamental problems of heat and mass transfer. During his lifetime, he received recognition in domestic and foreign scientific circles. His works served as the basis for the development of the heat engineering industry and became classic textbooks for the training of engineering personnel in Soviet times. He entered the world science thanks to the "Lykov effect" - the phenomenon of thermal diffusion of moisture in capillary-porous materials.
Childhood and youth
Alexey Vasilievich Lykov was born on September 7, 1910 in Kostroma. The childhood of the future scientist passed in the village of Big Salt (now Nekrasovskoe). The strong-willed nature of his parents became the basis for his upbringing, which was in accordance with the Orthodox merchant traditions. On Sundays, the family visited the temple, at dinner everyone gathered at the table and discussed the latest news, and in the evening there were music and sports (cycling and croquet).
His childhood coincided with difficult times in the history of Russia - the NEP and the construction of socialism, political repression and "purges". At any moment, the family could be arrested or destroyed for its "non-proletarian" origin.
At an early age, Alexey Lykov was distinguished by good abilities. He studied at home, and then externally passed the course at the Kostroma school and received a certificate.
Parents
Vasily Ivanovich Lykov, father of Alexei Vasilyevich, was a major breeder in the Kostroma province. The grandfather of the future scientist created “from scratch” the production of starch and molasses, which became the main source of income for the family. During the years of repression at the beginning of the XX century. Vasily Ivanovich was arrested. But since he was a good specialist in this industry, he was released on condition that he would work for the Soviet government.
In 1934, the father of Alexei Lykov was killed by "class enemies." Perhaps the rest of the family was saved from the brutal reprisal by the fact that the killer's lawsuit was widely covered in the press. Subsequently, A. V. Lykov always wrote in official documents that his father worked as a technologist, and his mother worked as a teacher in public schools. He was afraid that his merchant origin would be exposed, and the road to science would be closed forever.
The mother of Alexei Lykov, Anna Fedorovna, early left an orphan. At the age of 9, she was assigned to the Kostroma Mariinsky Shelter, where she received a good education. After the death of her husband, she was assigned a life-long pension from the management of a starch-syrup factory. For this, the directors of the enterprise were removed from their posts and announced a severe reprimand to him. Due to the loss of "class vigilance", party workers in the district suffered as well.
Study at the institute
At the age of sixteen, Alexei Lykov passed the documents for admission to the Pedagogical Institute of Yaroslavl, but was refused. Then, with the help of a fake birth certificate, he made a second attempt, which was successful. After 3 years, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of this educational institution.
At the age of 20, he began to work at the All-Union Thermotechnical Institute (VTI), having received the post of physical engineer. At the same time, he studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Physics, Moscow State University.
In 1930, A. V. Lykov also began teaching at the energy workers' faculty in Yaroslavl.
First research
Work on the kinetic drying processes was begun by scientists at the VTI drying laboratory. In 1931, he published the first copyright certificate for an invention, and a year later - the main provisions of the theory of changes in the evaporation surface and shrinkage of material during drying. This work brought him fame both in Russia and abroad.
The first experiments were conducted on filter paper disks. Lykov investigated the moisture content fields during convective drying. As a result, break points were identified on the curves reflecting the moisture content in the material. The scientist concluded that evaporation occurs throughout the thickness of the material, and not just on its surface. He was the first to propose temperature curves for the analysis of kinetic drying processes.
In the graduate school of Moscow State University from 1932 to 1935, Alexey Lykov worked on the thermodynamics of porous materials. In these years, he created a fundamentally new way of calculating the thermophysical characteristics, and then described a new phenomenon of thermal diffusion - moisture transfer under the influence of the temperature gradient in capillary bodies.
PhD thesis
In 1936, the successful defense of the dissertation was held. Its main provisions for discussion were the following:
- moisture during drying moves not only along the humidity gradient, but also along the temperature gradient;
- thermal diffusion in porous bodies proceeds mainly in the form of molecular vapor motion, the reason for this is the different speed of molecules of warm and cold sections of the material;
- due to changes in capillary pressure, moisture moves from more heated layers to less heated ones;
- there is the effect of “trapped” air, which pushes the liquid in the above direction.
Alexey Lykov also introduced a temperature gradient coefficient characterizing the difference in moisture content depending on the temperature gradient. The significance of this work was similar to that at the discovery of the Soret effect (thermal diffusion in gases and solutions). The phenomenon of thermal moisture conductivity was named after the name of its discoverer. The opening of this process was highlighted at a meeting of the Royal Society of London.
Based on this phenomenon, scientists justified the cracking of materials during their drying, and also introduced the criterion of crack formation. Thanks to the developed methods, it became possible to obtain industrial materials of higher quality.
Serious illness
A month after this momentous event, the doctors made a terrible diagnosis - Lykov's right lung and part of his larynx were almost completely affected. Tuberculosis developed, and conservative treatment did not help. He was prescribed an operation. Being confined to a hospital bed, A. V. Lykov worked on monographs on the dynamics of drying, heat conduction, and diffusion.
After recovery, he continued his research activities and in 1939 he defended his thesis for the title of Doctor of Technical Sciences. Since 1940, the scientist becomes a professor at MPEI.
Achievements and rewards
Contemporaries of the scientist noted that his ideas were non-standard, and many physical processes were interpreted by him in his own way, from a completely new point of view. Recognition A. V. Lykov earned during his lifetime. He was awarded several government awards, including the Stalin Prize of the II degree and the Prize to them. I. I. Polzunova, Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor, and others.
In 1956, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus elected him an academician, and a year later he was awarded the title "Honored Worker of Science and Technology".
Lykov organized international forums and all-Union conferences on heat engineering, in which hundreds of eminent scientists from all countries took part. He was awarded prizes from the scientific communities of Poland, Czechoslovakia, France.
Proceedings
For his long and fruitful work, Alexei Vasilyevich Lykov has published more than 200 scientific articles and 18 books (“Theory of Drying”, “Heat and Mass Transfer”, “Theory of Thermal Conductivity” and others). His works have withstood many reprints and are still used in the training of engineers.
In addition to works on the phenomenon of heat and mass transfer, the scientist was engaged in solving related problems: the development of new methods of analytical and numerical solutions, micropolar media, rheology, media with various types of memory, thermal conductivity anisotropy, nonlinear thermomechanics.
Teaching activities
A. V. Lykov conducted not only scientific work, but was also a teacher. He created the Department of Thermophysics at Belarusian State University, which to this day trains highly qualified specialists. For 40 years, the scientist lectured in several educational institutions, he trained about 130 candidates and 27 doctors of sciences.
He developed his students in a democratic and creative spirit, trusting young researchers with complex tasks. The scientist constantly reminded them that it was necessary to be critical of the concepts that underlie any theory and to listen to any new, even seemingly insane, at first glance, technical ideas and solutions.
At the initiative of the scientist in 1958, the "Engineering Physics Journal" was created. A. V. Lykov was his permanent editor throughout his life. A year later, he was appointed editor of the Soviet Union in the technical publication "International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer", devoted to the problems of thermal physics.
Alexei Vasilievich died on June 28, 1974 in Moscow, and his body was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.