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Hydraulic engineering
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hydraulic engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water. This area of engineering is intimately related to the design of bridges, dams, channels, canals, levees, elevators, and to both sanitary and environmental engineering.
Common topics of design for hydraulic engineers includes hydraulic structures, including dams and levees, water distribution networks, water 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 are frequently utilized by traffic engineers.
Related branches include hydrology, hydraulic modeling, flood mapping, catchment flood management plans, shoreline management plans, estuarine strategies, coastal protection, and flood alleviation.
Hydraulic engineering had already been highly developed under the Roman Empire where it was especially applied to the construction and maintenance of aqueducts. The recent best-selling historical novel Pompeii has such a Roman hydraulic engineer ("aquarius" in Latin) as its main protagonist.
Modern hydraulic engineering involves the use of computer software such as HEC-RAS to perform the calculations to accurately predict flow characteristics.
