HISTORY OF FLUID MECHANICS

Archimedes (287 BC 212 BC)

He formulated the laws of buoyancy and applied them to

floating and submerged bodies, actually deriving a form of
the differential calculus as part of the analysis.

Abu Rayhan & Al-Biruni (973-1048)

Al-Biruni and Al-Khazini were the first to apply

experimental scientific methods to fluid mechanics,
especially in the field of fluid statics, such as for
determining specific weights. Biruni discovered that
there is a correlation between the specific gravity of an
object and the volume of water it displaces.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

He derived the equation of conservation of mass in one-

dimensional steady flow. His notes contain accurate
descriptions of waves, jets, hydraulic jumps, eddy
formation, and both low-drags (streamlined) and high-drag
(parachute) designs.

Evangelista Torricelli (1608 1647)

Torricelli's chief invention was the mercurial barometer,

which arose from solving an important practical problem.
This was the first barometer. This discovery has
perpetuated his fame, and the Torr, a unit of pressure
commonly used in vacuum measurements, was named in
his honor
Edme Mariotte (1620-1684)

He is founded on a great variety of well-conducted

experiments on the motion of fluids, performed at Versailles
and Chantilly. He built the first wind tunnel and tested
models in it.
Blaise Pascal (1623,1662)

Pascal's work in the fields of the study of hydrodynamics

and hydrostatics centered on the principles of hydraulic
fluids. His inventions include the hydraulic press (using
hydraulic pressure to multiply force) and the syringe. he
made important contributions to the study of fluids, and
clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by
generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

He postulated his laws of motion and the law of viscosity of

the linear fluids now called Newtonian fluids.

Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782)

Together Bernoulli and Euler tried to discover more about

the flow of fluids. In particular, they wanted to know about
the relationship between the speed at which blood flows
and its pressure. Bernoulli's method of measuring pressure
is still used today in modern aircraft to measure the speed
of the air passing the plane; that is its air speed.

Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)

Euler developed both the differential equations of motion of

fluids and their integrated form, now called the Bernoulli
equation. This calculus was first applied to the motion of
water by d'Alembert, and enabled both him and Euler to
represent the theory of fluids in formulae restricted by no
particular hypothesis.
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783)

DAlembert used the equation developed by Euler to show

his famous paradox: that a body immersed in a frictionless
fluid has zero drag.

Antoine Chzy (1718-1798)

First to express the mean flow velocity in terms of channel

roughness, hydraulic radius, and bed slope. This formula
describes the mean flow velocity of steady, turbulent open
channel flow

Pierre Louis Georges Dubuat (17341809)

One of the most successful labourers in the science of hydrodynamics at
this period . he published, in 1786, a revised edition of his Principes
d'hydraulique, which contains a satisfactory theory of the motion of fluids,
founded solely upon experiments
St. Venant (1797 - 1886 )

He formulated the equations of unsteady flow in open

channels.

Poiseuille(1797-1869)
In 1838 he experimentally derived, and in 1840 and 1846
formulated and published, Poiseuille's law. This concerns the
voluminal laminar stationary flow of an incompressible
uniform viscous liquid (so-called Newtonian fluid) through a
cylindrical tube with constant circular cross-section.

Gaspard Riche de Prony (17551839)

The theory of running water was greatly advanced by the

researches he had done. he succeeded in drawing up general
formulae, which afforded a simple expression for the velocity
of running water.
Johann Albert Eytelwein (1764-1848)

He showed theoretically that a water wheel will have its

maximum effect when its circumference moves with half the
velocity of the stream.

Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette (1769-1834)

JNP Hachette in 1816-1817 published memoirs containing

the results of experiments on the spouting of fluids and the
discharge of vessels.

Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919)

He proposed the technique of proposed the technique of

while he was trying to understand why the sky is blue.

Application: Dimensional analysis is used to derive

relationships between the physical quantities that are
involved in a particular phenomenon that one wishes to
understand and characterize.

Osborne Reynolds (1842-1912)

He published the classic pipe experiment in 1883 which

showed the importance of the dimensionless Reynolds
number named after him.

Navier (1785-1836) and Stokes (1819-1903)

The NavierStokes equations, describe the motion of fluid substances.

These equations arise from applying Newton's second law to fluid motion,
together with the assumption that the fluid stress is the sum of a diffusing
viscous term (proportional to the gradient of velocity), plus a pressure
term.
Application: The equations are useful
because they describe the physics of many
things of academic and economic interest.
They may be used to model the weather,
water flow in a pipe, air flow around a
wing.

Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953)

Prandtl pointed out that fluid flows with small viscosity

(water and air flows) can be divided into a thin viscous
layer, or boundary layer, near solid surfaces and interfaces,
patched onto a nearly inviscid outer layer, where the Euler
and Bernoulli equations apply.