Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin (17 May 1911 – 8 November 1968) was a Russian scientist involved in the development of Soviet nuclear weapons, in particular the physics of combustion and explosion. Graduated in 1932 from the Crimean Institute in Simferopol

Simferopol

-Russian Empire and Civil War:The city was renamed Simferopol in 1784 after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire by Catherine II of Russia. The name Simferopol is derived from the Greek, Συμφερόπολις , translated as "the city of usefulness." In 1802, Simferopol became the...

, he was the department head at Arzamas-16 responsible for the development of shaped explosive charges used in nuclear implosion type weapons. He served as first scientific director at Chelyabinsk-70 from 1955–1960.

Awards and honors

Shchelkin was three times a Hero of Socialist Labor

Hero of Socialist Labor

Hero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture...

 in 1949, 1953 and 1956.

Legacy

His name was given to the Shchelkin spiral

Shchelkin spiral

The Shchelkin spiral is a device that assists the transition from deflagration to detonation in a pulse detonation engine. The spiral is named after Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, a Russian physicist who described it in his 1965 book Gas Dynamics of Combustion.In pulse detonation engines, direct...

, a device in a combustion chamber used to facilitate the deflagration to detonation transition

Deflagration to detonation transition

Deflagration to detonation transition refers to a phenomenon in ignitable mixtures of a flammable gas and air when a sudden transition takes place from a deflagration type of combustion to a detonation type of combustion...

.

Sources

p191

ISBN: 9789994116553
Martirosian, Grigor Khachaturovich
Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich (Metaksian Kirakos Ovanesovich)--Trizhdy Geroi, zasekrechennyi armianin, neizvestnyi dlia naroda
Erevan: Zangak-97, 2009. 200pp.
Russian
EVP Order #866959b Price $48.00

Shchelkin Kyrill Ivanovich (Metksyan Kirakos Ovanesovich -- Thrice Hero, a secret Armenian, unknown to nation
Subjects: History (General); Biography. Memoirs