text | Jinghuaiqiao
Chen Zongji is a famous expert in rock mechanics, rheology mechanics and geodynamics in my country. He was elected as an academician of , Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980.
On September 15, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, a half-body statue of Chen Zongji was completed at the Wuhan Institute of Geosciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan Institute of Geosciences ).
For Huang Lixing, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Geotechnology, the scene of meeting Academician Chen Zongji for the first time more than 40 years ago is still very real: In November 1976, it had just snowed heavily in Wuhan, and Mr. Chen was wearing a windbreaker and holding his iconic pipe in his hand.
The elegant academic master is Huang Lixing and many young scientific researchers' first impression of Chen Zongji.
Chen Zongji Photo provided by Wuhan Institute of Rock and Earth
No matter how far you go, you will come back to build the motherland
Chen Zongji, whose ancestral home is Anxi, Fujian, was born in 1922 in Indonesia . At first I studied in Indonesian , but not long after, I was affected by World War II and interrupted my studies. After the war, Chen Zongji went to , Netherlands, and continued his studies and obtained his doctorate in 1954.
After experiencing the smoke of war, Chen Zongji has a deep feeling about "the country is broken and the mountains and rivers are here", and his desire to serve the country is stronger.
1955, 33-year-old Chen Zongji declined high-paying employment from many countries and responded to the call to return to China to participate in construction.
At the beginning, he worked at the Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Harbin and created China's first Soil Flow Soil Dynamics Research Room.
1958, the country decided to develop Yangtze River water conservancy resources. Chen Zongji served as the science and technology group leader of the Rock Foundation Group of the Three Gorges Engineering of the State Science and Technology Commission, and was engaged in and guided the preliminary research on rock mechanics problems of the Three Gorges water conservancy hub in Yangtze River water conservancy hub.
In this way, Chen Zongji's family moved from Harbin, where water drips into ice in winter to Wuhan, which is hot and unbearable in summer, and spent nearly 20 years here.
In the eyes of Bai Shiwei, the former director of the Wuhan Institute of Geology and Earth, Chen Zongji is a "big expert with a straightforward personality and no pleasing words." At the beginning, everyone thought he was stricter.
After a long time, I realized that he was actually willing to answer academic questions, and his sense of distance was gradually broken. In the eyes of new young people, Chen Zongji has always been a kind elder who is "willing to chat with young people in the sun and watch young people play volleyball."
In the 1980s, Li Tingjie, who was once the deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Geology and Technology, applied to go to Northwestern University in the United States for exchanges. Chen Zongji's first reaction was to run abroad no matter how he was.
"After learning that it was just a short-term exchange, Mr. Chen said: Go early and come back soon." Li Tingjie said that this may be the habit of that generation of scientists. No matter how far they go, they will come back in the end.
conducts scientific research, starting from a mine pit of 100 meters deep
1962, Chen Zongji was assigned to establish the predecessor of the Wuhan Institute of Geotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, and served as the first deputy director (in charge of the work).
At that time, rock mechanics was an emerging field internationally and just started in China. Many of the people engaged in related research were transformed from water conservancy and civil engineering majors, and most of the institute were newly graduated college students.
At that time, Chen Zongji was also a geotechnical engineering consultant at Daye Iron Ore and Tanggu Port Terminal. The institute undertakes a research project on the slope stability of Daye Iron Ore.
Daye Iron Mine once provided a large amount of iron ore materials for Hanyeping Company , and the famous iron ore used in "Hanyang Made" comes from here.
However, after nearly a hundred years of mining, by the 1960s, the depth of the Daye mine had been 100 meters. How to continuously provide the iron ore required for national industrial development under the premise of safety is not only a technical issue, but also a scientific issue related to geotechnical mechanics.
Chen Zongji decided to start a rock mechanics research training class based on the engineering project to forge a scientific research team in engineering practice.
At the same time, no matter whether it is research or management, it takes 3 months to "go to the construction site" to practice.Bai Shiwei's first task after he came to the institute was to be sent to the Daye Iron Mine to practice on site.
"Mr. Chen asked an important factor in combining research and practice is the complexity of rocks and rock soil itself." Bai Shiwei said that rocks themselves have inhomogeneous and discontinuous properties. A small sample was taken from the site and taken back to the laboratory for analysis. Compared with the experiments on site, the data obtained can be 3 to 5 times different.
In this case, if you want the results to truly solve the needs of the country, you cannot be buried in the laboratory.
Bai Shiwei recalled that in addition to the researchers from Wuhan Institute of Geology and Earthwork, there were also personnel from Ma'anshan , Changsha and other institutes to join the project team to study and research together.
Since 1962, this training class, which lasted only 4 years, was the first to systematically carry out on-site large-scale rock mechanics experiments in China, and cultivated one of the earliest scientific and technological backbones in the field of rock mechanics in my country. It is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the field of rock mechanics research, and provides a large number of talent reserves for the subsequent construction of super projects such as the Three Gorges Project.
shoulders the "national responsibility" and solves national needs and develops the disciplines synchronized
After the Daye slope project, in 1972, Chen Zongji served as the technical consultant of Gezhoubababababake engineering and participated in the design and construction plan formulation.
Bai Shiwei introduced that the Gezhouba project is located in the plain area and has a soft foundation. How to build a dam under this geological condition is of great reference significance for the subsequent construction of Three Gorges Dam .
"It is a rule set by Mr. Chen. Until today, the Wuhan Institute of Geology and Steel still maintains this habit." Bai Shiwei introduced that once, Chen Zongji discovered at the project site that there was a layer of clay under the dam foundation.
"Mr. Chen judged that over time, the clay layer will undergo rheology, which is an unstable factor for the entire dam. He suggested digging the clay layer and then building the dam and rebuilding it."
As the project has begun, Chen Zongji's opinion has caused controversy. Based on the principle of respecting science, Chen Zongji always adhered to his opinions, which eventually attracted the attention of the central government.
Although the opinions he put forward are very different from the original design plan, they are more realistic and were finally adopted by the engineering unit.
1981, he also attended the meeting organized by the State Council on the interception of the river of Gezhouba . Relevant leaders specially asked him to express concluding opinions on the stability of the dam.
Chen Zongji completed the paper "Shear stress relaxation and creep properties of mudified interlayers and their importance in dam engineering design" based on the study of the mudified interlayers in Gezhouba Water Conservancy Hub foundation, and published it at the International Soft Rock Academic Conference, which immediately caused a sensation.
The soil skeleton structure theory, experimental methods and techniques for geotechnical rheology proposed by him were widely recognized and promoted by international peers and written into the textbook.
"Mr. Chen is the founder of the disciplines of geotechnical engineering, rock mechanics and engineering in my country, and is also the founder of Wuhan Institute of Geotechnical Sciences. In the past 20 years of working in Wuhan, he has always encouraged everyone to participate in major projects, independently develop equipment for engineering, and develop disciplines while solving national needs." Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering , researcher of Wuhan Institute of Geotechnical Sciences Yang Chunhe said that Academician Chen Zongji's style of caring about "national affairs" and shouldering "national responsibilities" has always been continued by Wuhan Institute of Geotechnical Sciences. As a national team and a national person, they will write more applied basic research results on the land of the motherland.
