HYDRAULICS (Gr. iS&,p, water, and ai,Xos, a pipe)

This article appears in Volume V14, Page 35 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HOR-I25

HYDRAULICS (Gr. iS&,p, water, and ai,Xos, a pipe) , the branch of engineering science which deals with the

practical

PRACTICAL

applications of the laws of hydromechanics.
I. THE DATA OF HYDRAULICS'
r. Properties of Fluids.The fluids to which the laws of

practical

PRACTICAL

hydraulics relate are substances the parts of which possess very

great

GREAT

mobility, or which offer a very small resistance to distortion independently of inertia. Under the general heading Hydromechanics a fluid is defined to be a substance which yields continually to the slightest tangential stress, and hence in a fluid at rest there can be no tangential stress. But, further, in fluids such as water, air, steam, &c., to which the present division of the article relates, the tangential stresses that are called into action between contiguous portions during distortion or

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

of figure are always small compared with the weight, inertia, pressure, &c., which produce the visible motions it is the object of hydraulics to estimate. On the other hand, while a fluid passes easily from one form to another, it opposes considerable resistance to

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

of volume.
It is easily deduced from the absence or smallness of the tangential stress that contiguous portions of fluid act on each other with a pressure which is exactly or very nearly normal to the interface which separates them. The stress must be a pressure, not a tension, or the parts would separate. Further, at any point in a fluid the pressure in all directions must be the same; or, in other words, the pressure on any small

element

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

of surface is independent of the orientation of the surface.
2. Fluids are divided into liquids, or incompressible fluids, and gases, or compressible fluids. Very

great

GREAT

changes of pressure change the volume of liquids only by a small amount, and if the pressure on them is reduced to zero they do not sensibly dilate. In gases or compressible fluids the volume alters sensibly for small changes of pressure, and if the pressure is indefinitely diminished they dilate without limit.
In

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

hydraulics, liquids are treated as absolutely incompressible. In dealing with gases the changes of volume which accompany changes of pressure must be taken into, account.
3. Viscous fluids are those in which change of form under a continued stress proceeds gradually and increases indefinitely. A very viscous fluid opposes great resistance to change of form in a short time, and yet may be deformed considerably by a small stress acting for a long period. A

block

of pitch is more easily splintered than indented by a

hammer

HAMMER, FRIEDRICH JULIUS (1810-1862)

, but under the action of the mere weight of its parts acting for a long enough time it flattens out and flows like a liquid.
All actual fluids are viscous. They oppose a resistance
to the relative motion of their parts. This resistance diminishes
with the velocity of the relative motion, and becomes zero
in a fluid the parts of which are relatively at rest. When the
relative motion of different parts of a fluid is small, the viscosity
may be neglected without introducing important errors. On
the other hand, where there is considerable relative motion,
the viscosity may be ex-
pected to have an influence
too great to be neglected.
Measurement of Viscosity. Coefficient of Viscosity.Suppose the plane ab, fig. r of area w, to move with the velocity V relatively to the surface cd and parallel to it.
Let the space between be filled with liquid. The layers of liquid in contact with ab and cd adhere to them. The intermediate layers all offering an equal resistance to shearing or distortion, the rectangle of fluid abed will take the form of the parallelogram a'b'cd. Further, the resistance to the motion of ab may be expressed in the form
R=KWV, (I)
where K is a coefficient the nature of which remains to be deter-

mined

MINED

.
Except where other units are given, the units throughout this article are feet, pounds. pounds per sq. ft., feet per second.
If we suppose the liquid between ab and cd divided into layers as shown in fig. 2, it will be clear that the stress R acts, at each dividing face, forwards in the direction of motion if we consider the upper layer, backwards if we consider the lower layer. Now suppose the

original

ORIGINAL

thickness of the layer T increased to nT; if the bounding plane in its new position has the velocity etV, the shearing at each dividing face will be exactly the same as before, and the resistance must therefore be the same. Hence,
R=K'w(nV). (2)
But equations (I) and (2) may both be expressed in one equation if K and K' are replaced by a constant varying inversely as the thickness of the layer. Putting K =%T, K' =/nT,
R =mV/T ;
or, for an indefinitely thin layer,
R =wdV /dt, (3)
an expression first proposed by L. M. H. Navier. The coefficient is termed the coefficient of viscosity.
According to J. Clerk Maxwell, the value of for air at 0 Fahr. in pounds, when the velocities are expressed in feet per second, is =0.000 000 025 6(461+0);
that is, the coefficient of viscosity is proportional to the absolute temperature and independent of the pressure.
The value of u for water at 77 Fahr. is, according to H. von Helmholtz and G. Piotrowski,
=o 000 oi8 8,
the units being the same as before. For water decreases rapidly with increase of temperature.
4. When a fluid flows in a very regular manner, as for instance when it flows in a capillary tube, the velocities vary gradually at any moment from one point of the fluid to a neighbouring point. The layer adjacent to the sides of the tube adheres to it and is at rest. The layers more interior than this slide on each other. But the resistance developed by these regular movements is very small. if in large pipes and open channels there were a similar regularity of

movement

MOVEMENT

, the neighbouring filaments would acquire, especially near the sides, very great relative velocities. V. J. Boussinesq has shown that the central filament in a semicircular canal of i metre radius, and inclined at a slope of only o000r, would have a velocity of 187 metres per second,2 the layer next the boundary remaining at rest. But before such a difference of velocity can arise, the motion of the fluid becomes much more complicated. Volumes of fluid are detached continually from the boundaries, and, revolving, form eddies traversing the fluid in all directions, and sliding with finite relative velocities against those surrounding them. These slidings develop resistances incomparably greater than the viscous resistance due to movements varying continuously from point to point. The movements which produce the phenomena commonly ascribed to fluid friction must be regarded as rapidly or even suddenly varying from one point to another. The internal resistances to the motion of the fluid do not depend merely on the general velocities of translation at different points of the fluid (or what Boussinesq terms the mean local velocities), but rather on the intensity at each point of the eddying agitation. The problems of hydraulics are therefore much more complicated than problems in which a regular motion of the fluid is assumed, hindered by the viscosity of the fluid.

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