FLUIDS MECANICS AND HYDRAULIC NETWORKS

The course belongs to the core educational activities of the Master Degree in Biotechnology for the environment and the sustainable development. The Course aims to provide the students with theoretical foundations of fluid mechanics with particular focus on applications on treatment plants and hydraulic infrastructures.

Knowledge
-Knowledge of the basic principles of fluid mechanics and hydraulics that regulate the operation of treatment plants and hydraulic networks, in order to be able to understand their design and management.

Skills:
- Calculate pressure forces.
- Solve the motion in single pipes under pressure given the boundary conditions;
- Select a pump and calculate its operating point;
- Calculate the positioning limit of a pumping system;
- Estimate the hydroelectric production of a plant;
- Calculate the motion in pressurized hydraulic networks;
- Calculate the motion in pipes or channels with free surface.

Calculus (one variable functions), Physics (dynamics, pressure, energy), Linear Algebra (vector, scalar product)

- Definition of fluids. The hypothesis of the continuum. Dimensions and units of measurement. Buckingham Theorem.
- Compressibility, surface tension, viscosity, vapor pressure.
- Static of fluids. Pressure, forces on flat surfaces.
- Fluid dynamics. Mass conservation equation. Bernoulli's theorem.
- Flow in pressurized pipes. Distributed and concentrated head losses.
- Hydraulic pumps. Characteristic curve, operating point, Net positive suction head. Pumps in series or parallel.
- Principles of turbines. Hydroelectric power generation.
- Principles for solving for in hydraulic networks.
- Free surface flow. Uniform motion. Flow in sewer pipes.
- Reservoir equation. Management of water resources.

Course material provided through the moodle online learning platform

Oral exam concerning course program and assignments

- Class Lectures
- Applied Assignments

Italian

oral