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. Hydraulic engineering is the application of the principles of fluid mechanics to problems dealing with the collection, storage, control, transport, regulation, measurement, and use of water. Before beginning a hydraulic engineering project, one must figure out how much water is involved. The hydraulic engineer is concerned with the transport of sediment by the river, the interaction of the water with its alluvial boundary, and the occurrence of scour and deposition. "The hydraulic engineer actually develops conceptual designs for the various features which interact with water such as spillways and outlet works for dams, culverts for highways, canals and related structures for irrigation projects, and cooling-water facilities for thermal power plants."
Fundamental principles A few examples of the fundamental principles of hydraulic engineering include fluid mechanics, fluid flow, behavior of real fluids, hydrology, pipelines, open channel hydraulics, mechanics of sediment transport, physical modeling, hydraulic machines, and drainage hydraulics.
Fluid mechanics Fundamentals of Hydraulic Engineering defines hydrostatics as the study of fluids at rest. In a fluid at rest, there exists a force, known as pressure, that acts upon the fluid's surroundings. This pressure, measured in N/m2, is not constant throughout the body of fluid. Pressure, p, in a given body of fluid, increases with an increase in depth. Where the upward force on a body acts on the base and can be found by the equation:
p = ρ g y {\displaystyle p=\rho gy}
where,
ρ = density of water g = specific gravity y = depth of the body of liquid Rearranging this equation gives you the pressure head p ρ g = y {\displaystyle {\frac {p}{\rho g}}=y} . Four basic devices for pressure measurement are a piezometer, manometer, differential manometer, Bourdon gauge, as well as an inclined manometer. As Prasuhn states:
On undisturbed submerged bodies, pressure acts along all surfaces of a body in a liquid, causing equal perpendicular forces in the body to act against the pressure of the liquid. This reaction is known as equilibrium. More advanced applications of pressure are that on plane surfaces, curved surfaces, dams, and quadrant gates, just to name a few.
Behavior of real fluids
Real and Ideal fluids The main difference between an ideal fluid and a real fluid is that for ideal flow p1 = p2 and for real flow p1 > p2. Ideal fluid is incompressible and has no viscosity. Real fluid has viscosity. Ideal fluid is only an imaginary fluid as all fluids that exist have some viscosity.
Viscous flow A viscous fluid will deform continuously under a shear force by the pascles law, whereas an ideal fluid does not deform.
Laminar flow and turbulence The various effects of disturbance on a viscous flow are a stable, transition and unstable.
Bernoulli's equation For an ideal fluid, Bernoulli's equation holds along streamlines.
p ρ g + u 2 2 g = p 1 ρ g + u 1 2 2 g = p 2 ρ g + u 2 2 2 g {\displaystyle {\frac {p}{\rho g}}+{\frac {u^{2}}{2g}}={\frac {p_{1}}{\rho g}}+{\frac {u_{1}^{2}}{2g}}={\frac {p_{2}}{\rho g}}+{\frac {u_{2}^{2}}{2g}}}
As the flow comes into contact with the plate, the layer of fluid actually "adheres" to a solid surface. There is then a considerable shearing action between the layer of fluid on the plate surface and the second layer of fluid. The second layer is therefore forced to decelerate (though it is not quite brought to rest), creating a shearing action with the third layer of fluid, and so on. As the fluid passes further along with the plate, the zone in which shearing action occurs tends to spread further outwards. This zone is known as the "boundary layer". The flow outside the boundary layer is free of shear and viscous-related forces so it is assumed to act as an ideal fluid. The intermolecular cohesive forces in a fluid are not great enough to hold fluid together. Hence a fluid will flow under the action of the slightest stress and flow will continue as long as the stress is present. The flow inside the layer can be either vicious or turbulent, depending on Reynolds number.
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