Pressure makes it go

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 BY MARY GANNON

By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor

Do me a favor — stand up near a wall just out of arm’s length reach. Now raise your arm with your
palm facing the wall and very slowly move toward the wall. Without yet touching the wall, tell me
where the force comes from to move your body close to the wall. I hope each of you said aloud,
“from me!” before your colleagues peered to see to whom you were talking.

Now continue moving until your palm is

pressed firmly against the wall. We can
agree that there is pressure between
your palm and the wall. Where did that
pressure come from? The wall? No, it
came from you, pushing your hand
against the wall. The pressure exists
only because the wall is resisting, just
as Newton’s Third Law would predict
(every action has an equal and opposite
reaction).

In the above example, did the wall — in

any way — create force? Any grade-
schooler would agree the force came
from you, so why do we continue to
believe counterintuitive claims such as
“pressure is resistance to flow?” First,
we must consider that pressure and
force aren’t always interchangeable,
mainly because only force
can create pressure. We literally define
pressure as force over a defined area,
so the force component is a given.

I agree that resistance is half the

equation, and without the wall resisting
your hand in my first example, your
hand would continue to hang out in free
air while your colleagues stared
bemusingly. But the pressure (and
therefore, force) did not start at the wall.
In hydraulics, you may argue that flow is
not pressure — that it’s some kind of Image courtesy of Adobe Stock
dynamic entity that flows freely like the
wind until met with resistance. But force
can only operate “downhill,” as it were, meaning it must come from an area of higher potential to
one of lower potential. I know what you’re thinking, but magnetism isn’t a real force — don’t @ me.
Pressure always starts at the pump. The source of energy in a hydraulic system is the prime
mover, which imparts energy into our hydraulic transformer, also known as a pump. Our pump
imparts force upon the hydraulic fluid, sending it in motion. Even if we assume a straight pipe exits
the pump with no restriction, some friction from the pipe (or even air) must be overcome, creating
fractional psi on a highly sensitive pressure gauge.

The same can be said for an entire hydraulic system. Even a tiny circuit running a hydraulic motor
with no load will still see nominal pressure overcoming friction inside the plumbing and the motor’s
internal moving parts. However, if we take that motor and run it through a thousand feet of hose
some distance from the pump, pressure gauges at the pump will read much higher than at the
motor’s work port, even with no load. If the claim that pressure starts at the resistance, then
pressure at the motor should be higher than at the pump. However, such an example would see
our hydraulic fluid moving backwards!

Clearly, hydraulic circuits work as intended because they follow the laws of physics. A hydraulic
pump pushing on hydraulic fluid is no different from someone pushing on a solid rod – the transfer
of force occurs no differently, only that hydraulic oil is a slightly compressible fluid. There is no way
to skirt the laws of nature — pressure makes it go. So if you’re in Detroit for the Fluid Power
Technology Conference this October 12-13, be sure to schedule some time for my live
presentation, Debunking Flow Makes It Go.