Oleg Plekhov

Corresponding member the Russian academy of sciences Oleg A. Plekhov is a Russian scientist working in the area of fracture mechanics, fatigue and structural integrity. His contributions cover several interconnected research directions. These include fundamental research into energy dissipation and storage processes in metals under deformation and failure, application of infrared thermography for motoring of fatigue crack propagation and development of energy based law of fatigue crack propagation, development of the critical distances theory and development of practical methods for increasing the fatigue life of metal structural elements.

One of the recent and most significant achievements of Oleg Plekhov is the development and assembling of a unique (the only one in Russia) experimental setup for implementing the laser shock peening. The experimental complex made it possible to develop and verify a mathematical model of the process and predict the generated residual stresses in the elements with complex geometry. Optimum processing parameters make it possible to increase several times the fatigue life of structures with stress concentrators. The results of this work are in demand and actively used in aircraft engine building in the Russian Federation.

An investigation of the problem of cold work allows Oleg Plekhov to develop theoretical approach and experimental setup that improve our understanding of the processes of dissipation and storage of energy at the crack tip. He has proposed an approximation relationship for the relationship between the rate of fatigue cracks and the intensity of energy dissipation, valid for both single- and multi-axis loading. One of the results of these works was a new scheme of mechanical tests, allowing to separate the rates of storage and dissipation of energy during plastic deformation and failure and create an experimental basis for further development of the structural-energy theory of strength, proposed in the works of Professor V.S. Ivanova.

An important Plekhov`s scientific result is generalization of the critical distances theory for the case of dynamic failure, proposed jointly with Professor L. Susmel. This work made it possible to propose a hypothesis about the physical mechanisms of the emergence of linear scales in the damage to fracture transition law and predict the process of dynamic failure of structures with stress concentrators.

For many years, he has been helping to develop scientific research in the field of fracture me-chanics and structural integrity in Russia. He is an expert of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Feder-al Research Centre for Projects Evaluation and Consulting Services, Russian scientific found in the area of structural integrity.

Oleg Plekhov is one of the founders of the Russian fracture group (Russian Structural Integrity Society). He was repeatedly the initiator of special issues of Fracture and structural integrity dedicated to the contribution of Russian mechanics to structural integrity problem. Over the past few years, together with Professor V. Shlyannikov, he has been the organizer of a special section of the All-Russian Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics dedicated to the problem of fracture mechanics and structural strength.