Hydraulics

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"Hydraulic" redirects here. For other uses, see Hydraulic (disambiguation).
For the mechanical technology, see hydraulic machinery.

Hydraulics and other studies[1]

An open channel, with a uniform depth. Open-channel hydraulics deals with uniform and non-uniform
streams.

Illustration of hydraulic and hydrostatic.

Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied

science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical
properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart
of pneumatics, which concerns gases. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical
foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the applied engineering using the properties
of fluids. In its fluid power applications, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,
and transmission of power by the use of pressurized liquids. Hydraulic topics range
through some parts of science and most of engineering modules, and cover concepts
such as pipe flow, dam design, fluidics and fluid control circuitry. The principles of
hydraulics are in use naturally in the human body within the vascular system and
erectile tissue.[2][3] Free surface hydraulics is the branch of hydraulics dealing with free
surface flow, such as occurring in rivers, canals, lakes, estuaries and seas. Its sub-
field open-channel flow studies the flow in open channels.
The word "hydraulics" originates from the Greek word ὑδραυλικός (hydraulikos) which in
turn originates from ὕδωρ (hydor, Greek for water) and αὐλός (aulos, meaning pipe).[4]

Contents

 1Ancient and medieval eras

o 1.1Persian Empire
o 1.2China
o 1.3Sri Lanka
o 1.4Greco-Roman world
o 1.5Arabic-Islamic world
 2Modern era (c. 1600 – 1870)
o 2.1Benedetto Castelli
o 2.2Blaise Pascal
o 2.3Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille
o 2.4In the UK
o 2.5Hydraulic models
 3See also
 4Notes
 5References
 6External links

Ancient and medieval eras[edit]

Waterwheels.

Early uses of water power date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt,

where irrigation has been used since the 6th millennium BC and water clocks had been
used since the early 2nd millennium BC. Other early examples of water power include
the Qanat system in ancient Persia and the Turpan water system in ancient Central
Asia.
Persian Empire[edit]
In the Persian Empire, the Persians constructed an intricate system of water mills,
canals and dams known as the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System. The project,
commenced by Achaemenid king Darius the Great and finished by a group of Roman
engineers captured by Sassanian king Shapur I [5], has been referred to by UNESCO as
"a masterpiece of creative genius".[5] They were also the inventors[6] of the Qanat, an
underground aqueduct. Several of Iran's large, ancient gardens were irrigated thanks to
Qanats[7]
The earliest evidence of water wheels and watermills date back to the ancient Near
East in the 4th century BC,[8] specifically in the Persian Empire before 350 BCE, in the
regions of Iraq, Iran,[9] and Egypt.[10]
China[edit]
In ancient China there was Sunshu Ao (6th century BC), Ximen Bao (5th century
BC), Du Shi (circa 31 AD), Zhang Heng (78 – 139 AD), and Ma Jun (200 – 265 AD),
while medieval China had Su Song (1020 – 1101 AD) and Shen Kuo (1031–1095). Du
Shi employed a waterwheel to power the bellows of a blast furnace producing cast iron.
Zhang Heng was the first to employ hydraulics to provide motive power in rotating
an armillary sphere for astronomical observation.[11][citation needed]
Sri Lanka[edit]

Moat and gardens at Sigiriya.

In ancient Sri Lanka, hydraulics were widely used in the ancient kingdoms

of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.[12] The discovery of the principle of the valve tower,
or valve pit, (Bisokotuwa in Sinhalese) for regulating the escape of water is credited to
ingenuity more than 2,000 years ago.[13] By the first century AD, several large-scale
irrigation works had been completed. [14] Macro- and micro-hydraulics to provide for
domestic horticultural and agricultural needs, surface drainage and erosion control,
ornamental and recreational water courses and retaining structures and also cooling
systems were in place in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka. The coral on the massive rock at the site
includes cisterns for collecting water. Large ancient reservoirs of Sri Lanka are
Kalawewa (King Dhatusena), Parakrama Samudra (King Parakrama Bahu), Tisa Wewa
(King Dutugamunu), Minneriya (King Mahasen)
Greco-Roman world[edit]
In Ancient Greece, the Greeks constructed sophisticated water and hydraulic power
systems. An example is a construction by Eupalinos, under a public contract, of a
watering channel for Samos, the Tunnel of Eupalinos. An early example of the usage of
hydraulic wheel, probably the earliest in Europe, is the Perachora wheel (3rd century
BC).[15]
In Greco-Roman Egypt, the construction of the first hydraulic
machine automata by Ctesibius (flourished c. 270 BC) and Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 –
80 AD) is notable. Hero describes several working machines using hydraulic power,
such as the force pump, which is known from many Roman sites as having been used
for raising water and in fire engines. [16]

Aqueduct of Segovia, a 1st-century AD masterpiece.

In the Roman Empire, different hydraulic applications were developed, including public

water supplies, innumerable aqueducts, power using watermills and hydraulic mining.
They were among the first to make use of the siphon to carry water across valleys, and
used hushing on a large scale to prospect for and then extract metal ores. They
used lead widely in plumbing systems for domestic and public supply, such as
feeding thermae.[citation needed]
Hydraulic mining was used in the gold-fields of northern Spain, which was conquered
by Augustus in 25 BC. The alluvial gold-mine of Las Medulas was one of the largest of
their mines. At least seven long aqueducts worked it, and the water streams were used
to erode the soft deposits, and then wash the tailings for the valuable gold content. [17][18]
Arabic-Islamic world[edit]
In the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and Arab Agricultural
Revolution (8th–13th centuries), engineers made wide use of hydropower as well as
early uses of tidal power,[19] and large hydraulic factory complexes.[20] A variety of water-
powered industrial mills were used in the Islamic world,
including fulling mills, gristmills, paper mills, hullers, sawmills, ship mills, stamp
mills, steel mills, sugar mills, and tide mills. By the 11th century, every province
throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation, from Al-
Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.[21] Muslim engineers also
used water turbines, employed gears in watermills and water-raising machines, and
pioneered the use of dams as a source of water power, used to provide additional
power to watermills and water-raising machines. [22]
Al-Jazari (1136–1206) described designs for 50 devices, many of them water-powered,
in his book, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, including water
clocks, a device to serve wine, and five devices to lift water from rivers or pools. These
include an endless belt with jugs attached and a reciprocating device with hinged
valves.[23]
The earliest programmable machines were water-powered devices developed in the
Muslim world. A music sequencer, a programmable musical instrument, was the earliest
type of programmable machine. The first music sequencer was an automated water-
powered flute player invented by the Banu Musa brothers, described in their Book of
Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century.[24][25] In 1206, Al-Jazari invented water-powered
programmable automata/robots. He described four automaton musicians, including
drummers operated by a programmable drum machine, where they could be made to
play different rhythms and different drum patterns.[26] The castle clock, a hydro-powered
mechanical astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari, was the
first programmable analog computer.[27][28][29]

Modern era (c. 1600 – 1870)[edit]

Benedetto Castelli[edit]
In 1619 Benedetto Castelli, a student of Galileo Galilei, published the book Della Misura
dell'Acque Correnti or "On the Measurement of Running Waters," one of the foundations
of modern hydrodynamics. He served as a chief consultant to the Pope on hydraulic
projects, i.e., management of rivers in the Papal States, beginning in 1626. [30]
Blaise Pascal[edit]
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) studied fluid hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, centered on
the principles of hydraulic fluids. His discovery on the theory behind hydraulics led to the
invention of the hydraulic press by Joseph Bramah, which multiplied a smaller force
acting on a smaller area into the application of a larger force totaled over a larger area,
transmitted through the same pressure (or exact change of pressure) at both
locations. Pascal's law or principle states that for an incompressible fluid at rest, the
difference in pressure is proportional to the difference in height, and this difference
remains the same whether or not the overall pressure of the fluid is changed by
applying an external force. This implies that by increasing the pressure at any point in a
confined fluid, there is an equal increase at every other end in the container, i.e., any
change in pressure applied at any point of the liquid is transmitted undiminished
throughout the fluids.
Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille[edit]
A French physician, Poiseuille (1797–1869) researched the flow of blood through the
body and discovered an important law governing the rate of flow with the diameter of
the tube in which flow occurred.[31][citation needed]
In the UK[edit]
Several cities developed citywide hydraulic power networks in the 19th century, to
operate machinery such as lifts, cranes, capstans and the like. Joseph Bramah[32] (1748–
1814) was an early innovator and William Armstrong[33] (1810–1900) perfected the
apparatus for power delivery on an industrial scale. In London, the London Hydraulic
Power Company[34] was a major supplier its pipes serving large parts of the West End of
London, City and the Docks, but there were schemes restricted to single enterprises
such as docks and railway goods yards.
Hydraulic models[edit]
After students understand the basic principles of hydraulics, some teachers use a
hydraulic analogy to help students learn other things. For example:

 The MONIAC Computer uses water flowing through hydraulic components to

help students learn about economics.
 The thermal-hydraulic analogy uses hydraulic principles to help students
learn about thermal circuits.
 The electronic–hydraulic analogy uses hydraulic principles to help students
learn about electronics.
The conservation of mass requirement combined with fluid compressibility yields a
fundamental relationship between pressure, fluid flow, and volumetric expansion, as
shown below [35]: