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ITIRO TANI
1907-1990
BY YASUO MORI
iTIRO T~T, researcher in fluid dynamics and aeronautics, died
on May 28, 1990, at the age of eighty-three.
Elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Engi-
neering in February 1979, Dr. Tani was a world-famous scientist
known for dedicating his time and effort to the study of funda-
mental phenomena in his field.
During his career, which extended over six decades, Dr. Tani
published more than one hundred scientific papers and ten
books. In particular, he made substantial, pioneering contribu-
tions to the theory of the boundary layer ant! its applications. He
worked at the University of Tokyo, in teaching and research, for
thirty-eight years. He was invited, as a distinguished scholar, to
universities and research institutions throughout the world and
presented invited lectures in international conferences.
Dr. Tani received his B.S. at the University of Tokyo in 1930
and was appointed lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics at
the UniversityofTokyo. He immediately reported on two studies
on ground effect and wall interference in wind-tunnel testing-
this research was carried out at the university's Aeronautical
Research Institute. In 1932 he was appointed assistant professor
in the Department of Aeronautics and the institute. In 1943 he
became professor and was awarded the doctor of engineering
degree for his important thesis on the theory of laminar-bound-
ary-layer airfoils.
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
The mathematical theory of the fluid boundary layer had
been first reported by Professor L. Prandtl of Gottingen in the
early l900s, but at first it was not fully understood by most fluid-
dynamic experts. Dr. Tani was introduced to this theory in the
early 1930s; he grew extremely interested in the subject and
began to concentrate his efforts on it. In 1939 and 1940 he
published papers on laminar-boundary-layer separation and on
the transition from laminar to turbulent flow in boundary layers.
In the late 1930s he focused his attention on the development
of airfoils with small friction drag, known since that time as
laminar-boundary-layer airfoils. These airfoils are shaped so as
to maintain laminar flow in their boundary layer as extensively
as possible. In the 1930s, when high-speed computers were not
yet available, Dr. Tani reported pioneering methods for calcu-
lating the aerodynamic performance of airfoils and wings, and
further, he wrote a famous paper on the design of shapes for
which transition from laminar- to turbulent-boundary-layer flow
is substantially delayed. These highly original papers were pub-
lished in reports of the Aeronautical Research Institute, as were
the results of his research on permissible surface roughness in
the laminar boundary layers. These reports were published
between 1939 and 1943, during the Second World War.
Following the war Dr. Tani's papers on laminar-flow airfoils
represented a great, worldwide academic contribution in the
progress of fundamental fluid mechanics. It may be emphasized
that his work on laminar boundary layers and airfoil design,
extended to compressible-fluid flow, has been instrumental in
the development of modern airfoils for jet aircraft. Still in a day
when high-speed computers were unavailable, he continued his
efforts in the theoretical solution of laminar-boundary-layer
problems and, in parallel, the problem of boundary-layer transi-
tion induced by two~limensional and isolates! roughness elements,
streamwise vortices, steps, grooves, and unsteady conditions.
In the 1960s he became interested in the turbulent boundary
layer, and wrote extensively on turbulent shear flow, the re-
sponse of turbulent boundary layers to sudden perturbations,
and the response of a turbulent shear flow to a stepwise change
of wall roughness.
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ITIRO TANI
231
Examples of his contributions outside the realm of boundary
layers are those concerning magnetohydrodynamics and, re-
markably, the aerodynamics of skijumps. In the former category
he studied steady flow of electrically conductive fluids in chan-
nels under transverse magnetic fields with consideration of the
Hall effect. In the latter category, he treated ski jump dynamics
from the airfoil-theory standpoint and arrived at desirable ski
jump configurations.
Throughout his career as a scientist and as a member of the
Japanese Academy, Dr. Tani received many prestigious awards,
both in Japan and internationally. He received the Toyo Rayon
Science and Technology Award in 1966, and in 1968 theJapa-
nese Academy honored him with the Japan Academy Prize,
which is considered to be Japan's most honorable distinction.
He was given the Second Class Order of the Rising Sun in 1977
by the Japanese government, was made a foreign member of the
Indian Academy of Science in 1987, and was awarded the Premio
Marco Polo Prize in Italy in 1979 and the Ludwig Prancitl Award
in Germany in 1988.
Dr. Tani's cledication, insight, and expertise have not only set
a standard to be emulated by research workers around the world,
but have also furthered the science of fluid mechanics in general
and our understanding of the phenomena of the bounce ary layer
· .
In part~cu ar.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
boundary layer
