In recognition of his outstanding service to the science and technology of friction and wear, particularly in the field of the physical chemistry of lubrication and the rheology of lubrication greases.
Professor Georgi Vladimirovich Vinogradov was born in 1910 and educated at the Moscow Technological University (Chemical Engineering Department). Following graduation in 1932, he taught at the Armoured Troops Academy where he occupied a Chair. After distinguished military service during the last war, he embarked upon research into the rheology of dispersion systems such as lubricating greases. He developed new methods and devices with the aid of which he was able to strain such systems in the range of shear rates between orders of magnitude of 10 and 10. By applying a photo elasticity method he demonstrated new phenomena, such as the formation of anisotropic structure, fixed in time, and phase transitions in electrical fields which have given a better insight into the characteristic structure of lubricating greases. His Doctoral thesis was entitled “Study into the Rheology of Lubricant Greases”. In 1952 Georgi Vinogradov was awarded the academic title of “Professor”.
In the fifties, at the USSR Institute of Petroleum, Professor Vinogradov engaged in fundamental studies into the lubricating action of petroleum products and synthetic oils. He used chromatographic separation of petroleum products into components, according to their chemical composition (naphthene-paraffin and low-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were separated from petroleum oils along with resin fractions). Professor Vinogradov was the first researcher to investigate the friction and wear of steel as a function of lubricant composition; it established the effect of the gas phase on the ability of fluids to lubricate, and he revealed the dependence of lubricant strength on oxygen content. In this work he was the first to apply the radioactive tracer method of elucidating the interaction between additives and steel.
In his studies of the capacity of lubricants at varying sliding speeds (varying from 1.10-8 to 1m/sec), he discovered new phenomena during friction between hardened steel occurring in the range of ultra low sliding speeds.
This work led in the early sixties to Professor Vinogradov’s attention being turned to the rheology of polymer systems, at the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of the USSR Academy of Sciences (laboratory of Rheology of Polymers). Systematic studies of their frictional behaviour were followed by studies into the viscoelastic properties of the monodisperse samples of different homologous series of carbon – and heterochain polymers. In this sphere he supervised the development of many original methods of determining the viscoelastic characteristics of high-molecular compounds, which were later adopted by research institutes and industry.
Professor Vinogradov founded the School of Rheological and Tribological Research, where he supervised and assisted in the writing of many doctoral theses. More than 500 papers and 26 inventions can be placed to the credit of this school under his guidance.
He has presented numerous papers to man y international conferences, including the 4th World Petroleum Congress, the 2nd and 3rd Conferences on Lubrication and Wear in London and the ASME/ASLE Lubrication Conference in Washington in 1964. His book “Rheology of Polymers” written in co-operation with professor A Ya Malkin, has been translated into German and into English, and published in the Federal Republic of Germany and the USA.
Professor Vinogradov is the Permanent Chairman of the Organisational Committee of the All-Union Symposia and Schools on Rheology. He is a member of the Editorial Board of four international journals, a member of the British Society of Rheology and represents the USSR on the International Council of Friction and Lubrication. He has written numerous papers and is an authority in physical chemistry, lubrication, friction and mechanical properties of polymers.
In 1972 he was made an “Honorary Scientist” of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1980 he was awarded the Lebedev Prize (the highest award given by the USSR Academy of Sciences for work on synthetic polymers).
Professor Vinogradov is regarded by his friends in many parts of the world as a delightful man with a keen sense of humour. His work is characterised by originality and objectivity and his theoretical analysis is thorough and uncompromising.
The award of the 1982 Tribology Gold Medal to Professor Georgi Vladimirovich Vinogradov is both a manifestation of the multi-disciplinary nature of Tribology, and of the highest standard of the recipients of this major distinction.