College of Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Department

Fluid mechanics lab MECH 348

Experiment Title: Hydraulic Press

Section Number: 51

Lab Instructor: Eng. Issah Al Hamad

Fall 2020
Table of content:

- Abstract

- Introduction

- Objectives

- Theory

- Apparatus

- Procedures

- Data and error analysis

- Results and Discussion

- Conclusion

- References
Abstract

Pascal’s law, in hydraulics , statement that, a Pressure is adequate to the force divided by the
area on which it acts. consistent with Pascal’s principle, hydraulic system a pressure exerted
on a piston produces an equal increase in pressure on another piston within the system. It also
states that when there is an increase in pressure at any point in a confined fluid, there is an
equal increase at every other point in the container.

Introduction

To do some repairs, you take the car to a mechanic, he places the car on a big plate and raises
the car so that he can go under it, how would he left such a big thing as a vehicle simply
hydraulic press will help him to do this, it is one of the examples of pascal's law which says
that as pressure is applied to a compressed fluid, the pressure changes and takes place in the
whole fluid. There is a piston inside the hydraulic press that acts like a pump that supplies a
limited region of the sample with a minimal mechanical power. The hydraulic press is a
piston fitted cylinder system that uses liquid under pressure to exert a compressive force on a
stationary base plate. A pump pushes the liquid into the cylinder.

Objectives

To demonstrate Pascal’s law using a hydraulic press virtual experiment.

Theory

A hydraulic press is a machine made of two pistons with different cross-sectional areas (a
and A), which is used to lift large weights or compress material.

The ratio of the distances moved and the ratio of the forces are both equal to the ratio of the
areas of the pistons.

The large piston is the one that does the "useful" work of crushing things. The governing
equation for the hydraulic piston is:

Where F1 and F2 are the forces applied on the first and second pistons respectively, and A1
and A2 are the areas of the first and second pistons respectively.
Apparatus

Hydraulic Press experiment by Wolfram virtual environment

Procedures
1. Refer to the below link to download the Hydraulic press demonstration file
(TheHydraulicPress.cdf) https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TheHydraulicPress/ .
2. Open the Wolfram player and select the hydraulic press file.
3. Set the small piston radius (R1) to 0.5 m, the large piston radius (R2) to 2m. then start
increasing the force on the small piston from 1 N to 2 N with 0.1 N increments.
Record your data in the below table.
4. Repeat the experiment at R1= 0.5 m and R2=2.5 m and record your data.
5. Repeat the experiment at R1= 1.0 m and R2=2.m and record your data.
6. Record your data in a similar table.
Data and error analysis
1.
R1=0.5 m R2=2 m
EXPERIMENTA
L VALUE
F1 F2
1 16
1.1 17.47
1.2 19.34
1.3 20.88
1.4 22.4
1.5 24.01
1.6 25.68
1.7 27.26
1.8 29.88
1.9 30.49
2.0 32
Total 265.41
THEORETICAL
VALUE
F1 F2
1 16
1.1 17.6
1.2 19.2
1.3 20.8
1.4 22.4
1.5 24
1.6 25.6
1.7 27.2
1.8 28.8
1.9 30.4
2.0 32
Total 264
 R1=0.5 m R2=2.5 m
EXPERIMENTA
L VALUE
F1 F2
1 24.98
1.1 27.52
1.2 30.07
1.3 32.59
1.4 35.12
1.5 37.49
1.6 40.01
1.7 42.56
1.8 45.08
1.9 47.46
2.0 49.96
Total 412.84
THEORETICAL
VALUE
F1 F2
1 25
1.1 27.5
1.2 30
1.3 32.5
1.4 35
1.5 37.5
1.6 40
1.7 42.5
1.8 45
1.9 47.5
2.0 50
Total 412.5
 R1=1 m R 2=2 m
EXPERIMENTA
L VALUE
F1 F2
1 3.98
1.1 4.38
1.2 4.80
1.3 5.19
1.4 5.21
1.5 6.01
1.6 6.37
1.7 6.78
1.8 7.18
1.9 7.58
2.0 7.62
Total 65.1
THEORETICAL
VALUE
F1 F2
1 4
1.1 4.4
1.2 4.8
1.3 5.2
1.4 5.6
1.5 6
1.6 6.4
1.7 6.8
 1.8 7.2
1.9 7.6
2.0 8
Total 66

𝑅_1=0.5 𝑚 𝑅_2=2 𝑚
33
31
f(x) = 1.03401515151515 x − 0.647151515151521
29
EXPERIMENTAL VALUE

27
25
23
21
19
17
15
15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33
THEORETICAL VALUE

|actual−experimental| (1)−(1.034)
% Error = ×100 % Error= ×100=¿ 3.4 %
actual (1)
 𝑅_1=0.5 𝑚 𝑅_2=2.5 𝑚
50
48
46 f(x) = 0.999563636363636 x + 0.0538181818181798
44
EXPERIMENTAL VALUE

42
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50
THEORETICAL VALUE

|actual−experimental| (1)−(0.9996)
% Error = ×100 % Error= ×100=¿ 0.04 %
actual (1)

𝑅_1=0.5 𝑚 𝑅_2=2 𝑚

8
f(x) = 1.00363636363636 x − 0.0730909090909098
EXPERIMENTAL VALUE

2
2 4 6 8
THEORETICAL VALUE

|actual−experimental| (1)−(1.0036)
% Error = ×100 % Error= ×100=¿ 0.36 %
actual (1)

2.
 𝑅_1=0.5 𝑚 𝑅_2=2 𝑚
33
31
29 f(x) = 16.5442424242424 x − 0.647151515151521
27
25
F2

23
21
19
17
15
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2

F1

R2 2 2 2 (16)−(16.544)
Slope = ( ¿¿ = ( ¿ ¿ = 16 % Error= × 100=¿ 3.4 %
R1 0.5 (16)

𝑅_1=0.5 𝑚 𝑅_2=2.5 𝑚
49
47
45 f(x) = 24.9890909090909 x + 0.0538181818181798
43
41
39
37
F2

35
33
31
29
27
25
23
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2

F1

R 2 2 2.5 2 (25)−(24.989)
Slope = ( ¿¿ = ( ¿ ¿ = 25 % Error= ×100=¿ 0.044 %
R1 0.5 (25)
 𝑅_1=1 𝑚 𝑅_2=2 𝑚
8

7 f(x) = 4.01454545454545 x − 0.0730909090909098

5
F2

2
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2

F1

R2 2 2 2 ( 4)−( 4.0145)
Slope = ( ¿¿ = ( ¿¿ = 4 % Error= × 100=¿ 0.3625 %
R1 1 (4)

Results and Discussion

● The theoretical force on the large piston was calculated using the hydraulic press
A2
equation: F2 = F1× ( ¿, and then we made a graph between the theoretical and
A1
experimental values and compared the slope of them to find the percentage error.

● Next, a graph between the experimental force on the large press (F2) and the force on
the small press (F1) was made for each data set, moreover noticed that the slope is
R2 2
equal to ( ¿ ¿ and after we calculated it we were able to calculate the error between
R1
the two slopes and it was a very small error.

● Increasing R1from 0.5 m to 1 m when R2is constant at 2 m will cause a huge change
in F2 it will make it decrease.

● Changing R2from 2 m to 2.5 m at constant R1will cause F2 to increase, so as we

increase the value of R2F2 will be higher.

Conclusion
We conclude this research by saying that there are many benefits of hydraulic pressure,
unlike its mechanical counterparts, hydraulic presses can compress any material to the
maximum. Also, hydraulic presses occupy only half of the space occupied by mechanical
presses because they could compress a large pressure into a cylinder of smaller diameter. We
were testing the strength of the hydraulic compressor on the fluid and surface. If we did this
experiment in the lab we wouild face some difficulties in the experiment, including that the
hydraulic compressor was very strong and we will have to be careful and there is an error
rate in the experiment, but it is simple from human errors, which is looking at the numbers
from the top and errors in the calculations, but all of them do not exceed 0.4 percent.

References

● Lumenlearning.com. (2019). Pascal’s Principle | Physics. [online] Available at:

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/physics/chapter/11-5-pascals-principle/.

● Wikipedia. (2020). Hydraulic press. [online] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_press#cite_ref-2 [Accessed 23 Sep. 2020].

● Nasa.gov. (2014). Pascal’s Principle and Hydraulics. [online] Available at:

https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/WindTunnel/Activities/Pascals_principle.html.