Hydraulic engineering
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This article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machinery
Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the movement of the fluids. This area of civil engineering is intimately related to the design of bridges, dams, channels, canals, and levees, and to both sanitary and environmental engineering.
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[edit] Applications
Common topics of design for hydraulic engineers includes hydraulic structures, including dams, levees, water distribution networks, water collection networks, sewage collection networks, storm water management, sediment transport, and various other topics related to transportation engineering and geotechnical engineering. Equations developed from the principles of fluid dynamics and fluid mechanics are widely utilized by other engineering disciplines such as mechanical, aeronautical and even traffic engineers.
Related branches include hydrology and rheology while related applications include hydraulic modeling, flood mapping, catchment flood management plans, shoreline management plans, estuarine strategies, coastal protection, and flood alleviation.
[edit] History
Earliest uses of hydraulic engineering were to irrigate crops and dates back to the Middle East and Africa. Controlling the movement and supply of water for growing food has been used for many thousands of years. One of the earliest hydraulic machines, the water clock was in used in the early 2nd millennium BC. Other early examples of using gravity to move water include the Qanat system in ancient Persia and the very similar Turpan water system in ancient China as well as irrigation canals in Peru.
In ancient China, hydraulic engineering was highly developed, and engineers constructed massive canals with levees and dams to channel the flow of water for irrigation, as well as locks to allow ships to pass through. Sunshu Ao is considered the first Chinese hydraulic engineer. Another important Hydraulic Engineer in China, Ximen Bao was credited of starting the practice of large scale canal irrigation during the Warring States Period (481 BC-221 BC), even today hydraulic engineers remain a respectable position in China. Before becoming President, Hu Jintao was a hydraulic engineer and holds an engineering degree from Tsinghua University
Eupalinos of Megara, was an ancient Greek engineer who built the Tunnel of Eupalinos on Samos Island in the 6th century BC, an important feat of both civil and hydraulic engineering. The civil engineering aspect of this tunnel was the fact that it was dug from both ends which required the diggers to maintain an accurate path so that the two tunnels met and that the entire effort maintained a sufficient slope to allow the water to flow.
Hydraulic engineering was highly developed in Europe under the aegis of the Roman Empire where it was especially applied to the construction and maintenance of aqueducts to supply water to and remove sewage from their cities. In addition to supplying the needs of their citizens they used hydraulic mining methods to prospect and extract alluvial gold deposits in a technique known as hushing, and applied the methods to other ores such as those of tin and lead.
[edit] Modern times
In many respects the fundamentals of hydraulic engineering haven't changed since ancient times. Liquids are still moved for the most part by gravity through systems of canals and aqueducts, though the supply reservoirs may now be filled using pumps. The need for water has steadily increased from ancient times and the role of the hydraulic engineer is a critical one in supplying it. For example, without the efforts of people like William Mulholland the Los Angeles area would not have been able to grow as it has because it simply doesn't have enough local water to support its population. The same is true for many of our[who?] largest cities. In much the same way, the central valley of California could not have become such an important agricultural region without effective water management and distribution for irrigation.
In a somewhat parallel way to what happened in California the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA) brought work and prosperity to the South by building dams to generate cheap electricity and control flooding in the region, making rivers navigable and generally modernizing life the region.
The modern hydraulic engineer uses the same kinds of computer-aided design (CAD) tools as many of the other engineering disciplines while also making use of technologies like computational fluid dynamics to perform the calculations to accurately predict flow characteristics, GPS mapping to assist in locating the best paths for installing a system and laser-based surveying tools to aid in the actual construction of a system.
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hydraulic engineering |
- Hydrology
- Hydraulic structure
- Hydraulic mining
- International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research
- Sunshu Ao
- Ximen Bao
- Eupalinos
- Henri Pitot
- Pompeii by Robert Harris
- Significant modern floods
- HEC-RAS
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[edit] References
[edit] External links
- International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research
- Hydraulic Engineering in Prehistoric Mexico
- Hydrologic Engineering Center
- Chanson, H. (2007). Hydraulic Engineering in the 21st Century : Where to ?, Journal of Hydraulic Research, IAHR, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 291–301 (ISSN 0022-1686).
