PUZANOV

CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA (see also List of Individuals)

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28.4.1929 Praha/CZ - 3.2.2002 Praha/CZ

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Alexander Puzanov, who later shortened his name into Puzan, graduated as a civil engineer from Czech Technical University in Prague Č VUT in the 1950s. He then joined the Hydrodynamics Section of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague and there remained all through his professional career, from 1965 as the vice-director of the Hydrodynamic Institute. He was one of the few Czech researchers who participated regularly in international activities, such as the bi-annual congresses of the International Association of Hydraulic Research IAHR. Puzanov was also a Lecturer at his Institution.

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During his entire career, Puzanov was interested in water waves propagating in open channels. He was one of those who contributed to the understanding of the cnoidal wave theory, and in particular investigated the features of the solitary wave. The latter was first described by John Scott Russell (1808-1882) in 1833 whereas the underlying theory was formulated only 40 years later by Joseph Boussinesq (1842-1929) thereby accounting for the effects of streamline curvature. It was realized that solitary waves describe natural phenomena such as tsunamis and that these waves are intermediate in comparison to the shallowand the deep-water waves. The propagation velocity of solitary waves follows those of shallow-water waves and is equal to the square root of the gravitational acceleration times the maximum flow depth. These waves may reach enormous velocities in oceans, of the order of the velocity of sound. Despite they are hardly visible because of extreme wavelength, tsunamis become dangerous at the run-up process, as was recently evidenced during the Asian tsunami disaster in 2004. Puzanov later also investigated unsteady flow features of floods in rivers. Few is known about his last 30 years, however.

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_{Anonymous (1957). Alexander Puzanov. Frontispiece. 7 IAHR Congress: Lisbon. P}

_{Balek, J., Puzanov, A. (1963). Computation of characteristics of flood waves from storm rainfalls. 10 IAHR Congress London 2(21): 165-171.}

_{Puzanov, A., Elias, V. (1965). Velocity and pressure distribution in plane positive surges. 11 IAHR Congress Leningrad 3(46): 1-8; also Vodohospodársky Časopis 13(3): 172-190. Puzanov, A. (1967). Mathematical modeling of time dependent hydraulic phenomena in systems of nonprismatic channels. Vodohospodársky Časopis 15(4): 415-431; 16(1): 30-53 (in Czech, with Summary in English). Puzan, A. (1973). Analogy of unsteady flow in open channels with unsteady flow in highly deformable tubes. Vodohospodársky Časopis 21(5/6): 647-662 (in Czech).}