Hydraulics Basics

Hydraulics is a portion of engineering and applied sciences, which deals with all mechanical properties that the liquids pose. The foundation in terms of theory for hydraulics is found with the help of fluid mechanics. As we know, fluid mechanics is a subject dealing with the properties of fluids. Speaking about the fluid power, the transmission, controlling and generation of this power is done by hydraulics with the help of liquids, which are pressurized. There is a wide array of topics being covered in hydraulics including computational dynamics of fluids, hydropower, turbines, pumps, circuitry, fluid control and fluidics, dam design, pipe flow, the behavior of river channels, flow measurement and erosion etc.

Some of the sub topics of hydraulics are as follows:

Free surface hydraulics: all that you are going to study about in this branch is the flow of liquids over a free surface. Hence, the occurring in seas, estuaries, lakes, canals, rivers will all be though in this branch. There are also some sub fields in this branch as well. One of the subfields called open channel flow is highly popular. As the name itself suggests, the entire flowing process of liquids in open channels will be covered in this special sub field.

The history of Hydraulics

It has been said that people have started benefiting form the water power since the era of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. For instance, the concept of irrigation has been employed since the 6^th millennium of BC. Some other best examples of usage of water power in ancient eras are like China’s water system called ‘Turpan’ and Persia’s water system called ‘Qanat’. It was the Greeks, who started the process of sophisticating in construction. The watering channel that they constructed for Samos has already been considered as a famous example when it comes to water power.

Questions:

• What is free surface hydraulics?
• What are the different topics covered in hydraulics?