Jerzy Stelmarczyk died

Jerzy Stelmarczyk died

Jerzy Stelmarczyk started working at the Department of Theory of Mechanisms and Machines in 1964. It was at a time when calculations were performed laboriously for months using only a slide rule, and determining the critical speeds of the turbogenerator shaft required several weeks of calculations using the Stodola method. During those years, he participated in the implementation of many application topics:

• Hydrodynamics of sliding bearings with partial bearing shells,

• Dynamics of unsteady journal motion in sliding bearings,

• Rotor motion stability in sliding bearings,

• Experimental model studies of rotor vibrations in sliding bearings,

• Development of a balancing method and work on a prototype of a wheel set balancing device,

• Transducer dynamics and force compensation.

After obtaining his doctorate, he published an article with M. Hincz in 1971 entitled Verification of the Hummel hypothesis against the background of calculation results of bearings with partial bearing shells, Scientific Papers of the University of Technology in Łódź, No. 134, Mechanics, No. 28. In the late seventies, Dr. J. Stelmarczyk worked on modifying the hydrodynamic theory of bearings with the consideration of the vibration velocity in the oil film, as well as on creating a dynamic characteristic of a multi-bearing sliding bearing with the consideration of the effect of temperature. These works were published in 1980.

After 1981, when the TMM Team was headed by Assoc. Dr. Hab. Eng. Mirosław Roszkowski, he recorded his participation in the results of the following application issues:

• Development of a method for determining the transfer function matrix as the rotor response to a disturbance in steady motion.
• Development of a method for calculating the noise of single-phase induction motors with a power capacitor.
• Development of a method for eliminating vibrations in a SL-271 terrazzo grinder.

Over 40 years of work in the unit, he contributed to building and consolidating the scientific image of the unit in the world of science and its applications. He worked actively until the early 2000s and even as a retired employee, he took part in didactic classes educating successive generations of young people.

The figure of our colleague is closely connected with sports - academic, during his student years - he was an active basketball player. Later, he continued his contact with this discipline as an activist and a central-level basketball referee and Commissioner of the Polish Basketball Association. He devoted a significant part of his interests to motorboat sports, also as a sports referee under the auspices of the Polish Motorboat and Water Skiing Association. The third discipline in which he had refereeing rights was football, interestingly, as a result of an honorary bet. He was passionate about sailing, participated in many cruises and sailing camps. He could be found in Masuria every year during the sailing season.

He passed away forever in April 2024.

Professor Janusz Wawrzecki wrote words that are so fitting for the character of Jerzy Stelmarczyk:

Many of us have left forever, others have retired, but there are always new young people for whom scientific and teaching work eventually becomes a way of life – although difficult, full of sacrifices and in many cases very modest. Let us therefore have deep respect for all of them and remain convinced that after us there will come other enthusiasts of the adventure with science.