Aleksey Krylov

“The name Krylov,” writes Lehmann, “stands for one of the most important theoreticians in international shipbuilding whose work is still relevant today” [Lehmann, 1999, p. 250]. Furthermore, Krylov also had a significant influence on structural mechanics and theory of structures. For example, the Krylov functions play a key role in the theory of the elastically bedded beam, and have been used with great success in shipbuilding theory, railway engineering, structural engineering and geotechnics. After his school education in France and Germany, Krylov returned to Russia in 1878 and studied shipbuilding in St.Petersburg. Following graduation in 1884, he was employed in the Hydrographic Institute in the city and in 1888 attended the Naval Academy (where he also taught) while simultaneously studying mathematics at the University of St. Petersburg. As early as 1898, Krylov presented a general theory of ship movements in waves, which made him one of the great figures in the hydromechanics of ships alongside Froude, Havelock, Michell and Thomson (Lord Kelvin) [Lehmann, 1999, p. 250]. He was quickly promoted to professor of shipbuilding theory at the Polytechnic and the Naval Academy in St.Petersburg; at the same time, he was in charge of the navy’s Shipbuilding Testing Institute from 1900 to 1908, and until 1910 was the principal shipbuilding inspector and chairman of the Navy’s Technical Committee. In addition, he lectured at the St.Petersburg Institute of Engineers of Ways of Communication as visiting professor from 1911 to 1913. He was awarded the Order of the Holy Vladimir, 2nd class, in 1915, and one year later was appointed Admiral of the Imperial Navy. In 1914 Krylov became a corresponding and in 1916 a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. After the October Revolution, he was chief of the Naval Academy from 1919 to 1921. He subsequently worked outside Russia until he was appointed professor at the Naval Academy in 1927. From 1928 to 1934 he was director of the Institute of Physics & Mathematics at the Academy of Sciences. Soviet Russia established a large merchant fleet and navy under Krylov’s leadership. He became president of the Russian Society of Shipbuilders & Ship Engine Builders in 1933 and editor of the renowned shipbuilding journal Sudostrojenie. His scientific contributions to shipbuilding theory, applied mathematics and mechanics as well as the history of mechanics were highly acclaimed at home and abroad: Gold Memorial medal of the British Institution of Naval Architects (1898), honorary member of the Institution of Naval Architects (1941), Stalin Prize, 1st class (1941), Hero of Socialist Labour (1943). His final resting place is in the St.Petersburg Volkov Cemetery in the vicinity of the graves of Mendeleyev and Pavlov [Lehmann, 1999].

Main contributions to structural analysis:

O raschete balok, lezhashchikh na uprugom osnovanii (on the analysis of elastically supported beams) [1931/1]; O formakh ravnovesiya szhatykh stoek pri prodol’nom izgibe (on the equilibrium forms of columns subject to buckling) [1931/2]; Sobranie trudov (collected works) [1936–56] 

Source: Kurrer, Karl-Eugen The History of the Theory of Structures, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH, Berlin (Deutschland), ISBN 3-433-01838-3, 2008; p. 743