13 votes

How to calculate flow rate of water through a pipe?

Laminar Flow: If the flow in the pipe is laminar, you can use the Poiseuille Equation to calculate the flow rate: $$ Q=\frac{\pi D^4 \Delta P}{128 \mu \Delta x} $$ Where $Q$ is the flow rate, $D$ ...
Carlton's user avatar
  • 3,044
9 votes

Does a motor suffer damage when resistance to the intended motion is met?

The answer depends on the specific type of motor you intend to use, but in general: when a motor is loaded down, it draws more current, which means its windings get hotter at the same time that the ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

How do I add a resistance to mechanical movement in both directions, apart from friction?

The two basic mechanical options are either a viscous damper or inertia or indeed a combination or both. Of the two a damper is probably the closest to what you want as it will provide a force which ...
Chris Johns's user avatar
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7 votes
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Why excavators use Hydraulic motors for rolling or moving forward instead of diesel engine?

Yes, because many or most excavators can 360 rotate so getting a classic gearbox/ prop shaft drive to the wherls or tracks would be challenging. Then sorting the ability to do forwards with one side ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
  • 15.5k
6 votes

How do I add a resistance to mechanical movement in both directions, apart from friction?

Elaborating on CarlWitthoft's comment, magnetic damping, sometimes called eddy-current damping, is a standard way of introducing damping in metallic systems. The principle is fairly simple; as a ...
Chris Mueller's user avatar
6 votes

Does a motor suffer damage when resistance to the intended motion is met?

It depends on the specific type of motor, as @nielsnelson mentions, but it also depends on what you use to drive the motor. In general, a motor that's designed to run continuously isn't going to take ...
TimWescott's user avatar
  • 2,472
6 votes

Why are hydraulic systems widely used to multiply force ? won't a couple of gears do the job?

Power density. Modern hydraulic systems are way better compared to ropes and pulleys, gears, electromagnetic systems or levers. Freedom of geometry. Put a cylinder somewhere, get a rubber hose to it, ...
fraxinus's user avatar
  • 499
5 votes
Accepted

Why no hydraulic piston gas compressors?

There are two aspects to this. First is that the main advantage of hydraulics is that is provides a compact means of greatly multiplying force but in compressing gasses you have to a huge amount of ...
Chris Johns's user avatar
  • 15.2k
5 votes

Help with hydraulic design

Siphoning works when water goes from a higher point to a lower point, such as from an aquarium on a stand into a bucket on the floor next to the stand. Siphoning only works when the start point is ...
do-the-thing-please's user avatar
5 votes

What is the best way to dry something that is quite thick?

Solar heating would not "elevate" moisture in the object, but instead evaporates whatever is on the sunny side, allowing moisture from the bottom to soak back up by capillary action. Your best bet (...
nflemming2004's user avatar
5 votes

Why actuators are mounted in inverted position?

The cylinder will be mounted where it is easiest to get the hydraulic lines to it.
Tiger Guy's user avatar
  • 6,544
4 votes

Why do hydraulic systems use special fluid - what's wrong with water?

In addition to the other answers, water is commonly used as a primary working fluid in industrial hydraulic systems with additives to prevent the issues mentioned above. Typical applications include ...
jrbe228's user avatar
  • 366
4 votes

Hydraulic Symbols

I worked in a hydraulics design field for two years and found that unfortunately there isn't a standard way to draw many components. Each manufacturer seems to choose their own route. Designers are ...
ericnutsch's user avatar
  • 7,904
4 votes

Calculating piston force for pneumatic vs hydraulic

The formula is valid independant of the fluid. The force in an hydraulic system is based on pressure and area - a height difference between pistons is usually small compared to the acting pressure ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
  • 15.5k
4 votes

Managing water supply pressure to a building

The best method is to pressurize your tank on the upper floor, then regulate the flow as it goes down. This is because pressurizing will require active components (i.e. pumps, and other devices that ...
Mark's user avatar
  • 5,343
4 votes

What kind of pressure switch can I use for pressures up to 5-10 tons/cm^2?

You do this by monitoring the hydraulic pressure rather than the press tonnage. Since force = pressure x area we can rearrange so that pressure = force / area. Using your quaint units of measure, 5 ...
Transistor's user avatar
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4 votes
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Mechanism of a manual Crank Adjustable Height Standing Desk

the crank handle is connected to the little black box, inside of which there are gears that rotate the metal shaft you can see running through the box and across the back of the table support. the ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
4 votes

How to lift an antenna tower into position?

The forces to lift a 100 ft tower from horizontal are going to be enormous. So you will have to build the tower stronger, which will make the forces even larger. For a 100 ft tower erect it once, and ...
Tiger Guy's user avatar
  • 6,544
3 votes
Accepted

Where exactly will a hydraulic jump occur?

First a hydraulic jump is where fluid will transition from supercritical (having a Froude Number greater than one, to subcritical (having a Froude Number less than one). When the Froude number is near ...
Rick's user avatar
  • 1,335
3 votes

How to calculate flow rate of water through a pipe?

General case The basic tools for this kind of questions would be Bernoulli's equation, in the case of water, for an incompressible fluid. $\frac{p}{\rho} + gz + \frac{c^2}{2} = const$ As you stated ...
idkfa's user avatar
  • 1,734
3 votes

Hydraulic cylinders

Hydraulic (or pneumatic) cylinders are merely a means to provide a linear force between two points. You select the cylinder based on how much force, how much distance and how much speed you need for ...
Dave Tweed's user avatar
  • 6,874
3 votes

Why do hydraulic systems use special fluid - what's wrong with water?

In terms of historical interest, water was used in the first hydraulic brakes and very soon the obvious problems of freezing (due to ambient temperature) and boiling (due to lots of brake use) became ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
  • 15.5k
3 votes
Accepted

Hydraulic Arm - Handbrake

It is a gas spring. They are rated in units of pounds and travel in inches. Typically ranges are 10 to 200 pounds, and 6 to 24 inches. Here is one example : https://www.amazon.com/JR-Products-GSNI-...
Entrepreneur's user avatar
3 votes

How do you get a closed vessel to >90,000 psi internal pressure

Contact an engineering firm with experience designing and building such systems and vessels to code. Otherwise, you're just building a bomb.
DLS3141's user avatar
  • 2,145
3 votes

hydraulic diameter

You have the correct answer, you just haven't simplified the terms. Root 3 divided by 3 is 1 over root 3. ie. x^(1/2) / x = x^(1/2).x(-1) = x^(-1/2)
Fred's user avatar
  • 9,642
3 votes

What are the tradeoffs between using hydraulic motors and electric motors?

you will find that a generator capable of delivering, say, 10HP (electrical equivalent, 750 watts = 1HP) is very big and heavy and a hydraulic pump with a 10HP rating is smaller and lighter. Similarly,...
niels nielsen's user avatar
3 votes

What are the tradeoffs between using hydraulic motors and electric motors?

You get more free gearing with the hydrostat, and much smaller package and less weight. Take a 60hp diesel and hook it to a hydraulic drive servo. It makes up to 4500 psi peak pressure, or 8 gpm peak ...
Phil Sweet's user avatar
  • 4,607
3 votes
Accepted

Is it illegal to use the hydrodynamic energy contained within the city water supply to generate electricity?

Interesting problem. Let’s see, if we have a cylinder 12 inches in diameter and 8 feet high that would be (pi*(0.5f)^2*8f)*7.48 g/ft3=47 gallons per operation. ...
user1683793's user avatar
  • 1,000
3 votes
Accepted

How to make sure a pipe does not take all of the water from a stream?

You can put a valve on your pipe to control the flow. Or partition the stream by means of a short concrete wall which looks like an indented grout trowel upside-down . Say two opening for the stream ...
kamran's user avatar
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