Biography of Gorkunov, Eduard Stepanovich

 

Gorkunov, Eduard Stepanovich, RAS Full Member (Academician)

Position: Director of Institute
Academic degree: Doctor of Science (engineering sciences)
Speciality code: 05.11.13
Academic Title: Professor
Telephone: (343) 374 47 25

 

 

Biography

Eduard S. Gorkunov started his academic career in 1970 at Ural State University as a postgraduate student of Professor M. N. Mikheyev, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who headed the well-known Ural school of thought studying magnetic and electromagnetic physical methods of nondestructive testing applied to objects of metallurgy and mechanical engineering. He continued his scientific work as a junior research assistant at the Institute of the Physics of Metals (IPhM), Ural Branch of RAS (Sverdlovsk, now Ekaterinburg) and then as a senior research assistant and laboratory head at the then newly established division of IPhM in Izhevsk, subsequently reformed into the Physical-Technical Institute, Ural Branch of RAS, where he became Deputy Director. In 1987 E. Gorkunov returned to the Institute of the Physics of Metals to head the laboratory of his teacher, who had retired.

 

In 1977 he became Candidate of Science and in 1988 Doctor of Science. Professor since 1992, he was elected Corresponding Member (1997) and then Full Member (2011) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

 

At present Professor Gorkunov is Deputy Chairman of the Ural Branch of RAS, Director of the Institute of Engineering Science, RAS (UB), Deputy Chairman of the Scientific Council of RAS on Nondestructive Physical Methods of Testing, President of the Russian Society for Nondestructive Testing and Technical Diagnostics, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing (Defektoskopiya), member of the editorial boards of the Russian journals of Kontrol. Diagnostika,  Transport Urala, Mashinostroyeniye i Inzhenernoye Obrazovaniye, Uchenye Zapiski KnAGTU and the Bulgarian journal of Nauchni Izvestiya na NTSM, member of the Interdepartmental Council on Awarding RF Government Prizes in Science and Technology, the Coordination Council for Engineering Sciences at the RAS Presidium, the Bureau of the United Council for Mathematics, Mechanics and Informatics at the Presidium of the Ural Branch of RAS, the Russian National Certification Committee for Nondestructive Testing, chairman of a dissertation council.

 

Academic interests: developing and creating magnetic, electromagnetic and electromagnetic-acoustic methods of nondestructive testing and devices for evaluating the actual state of products and structural components and determining the service life of important engineering objects.

 

Basing himself on fundamental investigations into magnetization reversal processes and their relation to the structural state, chemical and phase compositions, strength properties of materials and products, Academician E. S. Gorkunov has developed a novel line of research on determining a complex of the physical-mechanical properties and production quality of rolled stock, machine parts and mechanisms. The successful application of magnetic structural-phase analysis to the evaluation of the quality of materials is based on original investigations into regular relations between magnetism and the structural-phase transformations occurring in ferromagnetic steels and alloys under various hardening treatments. For this purpose, general regularities in the behavior of magnetic, magnetoelastic, magnetoelastic-acoustic, electric and mechanical properties of steels under varying conditions of different hardening treatments (bulk and surface heat treatments, plastic deformation) have been studied and classified.

 

Theoretical foundations for the structurescopy of products and the diagnostics of structural components by analyzing the resistance of magnetic states to the effects of electromagnetic field, elastic deformations and temperature have been developed. A concept has been developed to evaluate the level of macroscopic and microscopic stresses, the amount of plastic strain of ferromagnetic materials with the involvement of well-known and new physical phenomena, namely, electromagnetic acoustic transformation, magnetoelastic acoustic emission and piezodynamic magnetization. Principles and methods have been devised for electromagnetic testing of the abrasive wear resistance of products made of high-carbon steels, the cutting ability of hard-alloy tools, as well as eddy-current methods for estimating the wear of sliding tribological contacts. A technique for determining the service life of a sliding tribological conjunction from the analysis of the size and magnetic characteristics of wear particles in a lubricant has been elaborated.

 

The obtained unique information on the correlation between magnetism and the structural-phase state of the main classes of structural steels and cast irons has been systematized, published in more than 500 works, including 9 books, 19 surveys, 36 author’s certificates (patents), and used for creating nondestructive testing facilities, which are in operation at numerous metallurgical and machine-building enterprises in Russia and former Soviet Union.                                                                                                

 

At present Prof. Gorkunov supervises the development of a new line of research involving the evaluation of metal damage and the creation of methods for calculating the residual life of structural components from the data on their strength characteristics obtained by nondestructive physical methods. The results of these investigations are now of great importance for ensuring technogenic safety of operating aged equipment.

 

Scientific interests:

Nondestructive physical methods of testing and diagnostics, physics of magnetic phenomena, magnetization reversal processes, estimation of the structure and phase composition, creation of methods for determining the degradation of the structure and mechanical properties of structural components, methods and devices for diagnosing and testing product quality.

 

Membership in academies and academic associations:

Full Member (Academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Full Member (Academician) of the Academia NDT International (Italy), Honorary Member of the Bulgarian NDT Society.

 

Professor E. S. Gorkunov was awarded with a number of Russian national orders, prizes and medals, as well as regional diplomas.

The number of academic works: over 500, including 9 books, 36 author’s certificates and patents