| Fig. 151. |
Fig. 151 shows the results of one of Harlacher’s gaugings worked out in this way. The upper figure shows the section of the river and the positions of the verticals at which the soundings and gaugings were taken. The lower gives the curves of equal velocity, worked out from the current meter observations, by the aid of vertical velocity curves. The vertical scale in this figure is ten times as great as in the other. The discharge calculated from the contour curves is 14.1087 cubic metres per second. In the lower figure some other interesting curves are drawn. Thus, the uppermost dotted curve is the curve through points at which the maximum velocity was found; it shows that the maximum velocity was always a little below the surface, and at a greater depth at the centre than at the sides. The next curve shows the depth at which the mean velocity for each vertical was found. The next is the curve of equal velocity corresponding to the mean velocity of the stream; that is, it passes through points in the cross section where the velocity was identical with the mean velocity of the stream.
Hydraulic Machines
§ 152. Hydraulic machines may be broadly divided into two classes: (1) Motors, in which water descending from a higher to a lower level, or from a higher to a lower pressure, gives up energy which is available for mechanical operations; (2) Pumps, in which the energy of a steam engine or other motor is expended in raising water from a lower to a higher level. A few machines such as the ram and jet pump combine the functions of motor and pump. It may be noted that constructively pumps are essentially reversed motors. The reciprocating pump is a reversed pressure engine, and the centrifugal pump a reversed turbine. Hydraulic machine tools are in principle motors combined with tools, and they now form an important special class.
Water under pressure conveyed in pipes is a convenient and economical means of transmitting energy and distributing it to many scattered working points. Hence large and important hydraulic systems are adopted in which at a central station water is pumped at high pressure into distributing mains, which convey it to various points where it actuates hydraulic motors operating cranes, lifts, dock gates, and in some cases riveting and shearing machines. In this case the head driving the hydraulic machinery is artificially created, and it is the convenience of distributing power in an easily applied form to distant points which makes the system advantageous. As there is some unavoidable loss in creating an artificial head this system is most suitable for driving machines which work intermittently (see [Power Transmission]). The development of electrical methods of transmitting and distributing energy has led to the utilization of many natural waterfalls so situated as to be useless without such a means of transferring the power to points where it can be conveniently applied. In some cases, as at Niagara, the hydraulic power can only be economically developed in very large units, and it can be most conveniently subdivided and distributed by transformation into electrical energy. Partly from the development of new industries such as paper-making from wood pulp and electro-metallurgical processes, which require large amounts of cheap power, partly from the facility with which energy can now be transmitted to great distances electrically, there has been a great increase in the utilization of water-power in countries having natural waterfalls. According to the twelfth census of the United States the total amount of water-power reported as used in manufacturing establishments in that country was 1,130,431 h.p. in 1870; 1,263,343 h.p. in 1890; and 1,727,258 h.p. in 1900. The increase was 8.4% in the decade 1870-1880, 3.1% in 1880-1890, and no less than 36.7% in 1890-1900. The increase is the more striking because in this census the large amounts of hydraulic power which are transmitted electrically are not included.
XII. IMPACT AND REACTION OF WATER
§ 153. When a stream of fluid in steady motion impinges on a solid surface, it presses on the surface with a force equal and opposite to that by which the velocity and direction of motion of the fluid are changed. Generally, in problems on the impact of fluids, it is necessary to neglect the effect of friction between the fluid and the surface on which it moves.
During Impact the Velocity of the Fluid relatively to the Surface on which it impinges remains unchanged in Magnitude.—Consider a mass of fluid flowing in contact with a solid surface also in motion, the motion of both fluid and solid being estimated relatively to the earth. Then the motion of the fluid may be resolved into two parts, one a motion equal to that of the solid, and in the same direction, the other a motion relatively to the solid. The motion which the fluid has in common with the solid cannot at all be influenced by the contact. The relative component of the motion of the fluid can only be altered in direction, but not in magnitude. The fluid moving in contact with the surface can only have a relative motion parallel to the surface, while the pressure between the fluid and solid, if friction is neglected, is normal to the surface. The pressure therefore can only deviate the fluid, without altering the magnitude of the relative velocity. The unchanged common component and, combined with it, the deviated relative component give the resultant final velocity, which may differ greatly in magnitude and direction from the initial velocity.
From the principle of momentum, the impulse of any mass of fluid reaching the surface in any given time is equal to the change of momentum estimated in the same direction. The pressure between the fluid and surface, in any direction, is equal to the change of momentum in that direction of so much fluid as reaches the surface in one second. If Pa is the pressure in any direction, m the mass of fluid impinging per second, va the change of velocity in the direction of Pa due to impact, then
Pa = mva.