Fluids & Hydraulics Laboratory

Fluids & Hydraulics Laboratory

The Fluids & Hydraulics Laboratory has a 7-metre-long hydraulic channel, as well as equipment to study load loss in pipes, equipment to observe turbulent and laminar regimes, hydraulic pumps, and equipment to study hydrostatic stability in submerged bodies.

In the laboratory, students can:

• Conduct hydrostatic tests, observing the force of a liquid on surfaces.
• Observe the stability of submerged bodies.
• Run dynamic tests with a free-regime channel, measuring velocities and flows and placing obstacles to predict their behaviour as well as wave production.
• Study energy loss in different types of pipes, elbows and valves.
• Run efficiency tests with hydraulic pumps.
• Study the energy in a fluid and the change of regime from laminar to turbulent.

Through lab practice, students can better understand the static and dynamic behaviour of a fluid, whether it be in energy losses, its efficiency in a feed pump, or through measuring the flow of pipes and mechanisms, thus foreseeing how a design will behave.

In this laboratory, students conduct hands-on activities related to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Architecture, Civil Engineering, Building, Mechanics, Industrial Engineering and  Aerospace Engineering, as well as various End-of-Degree Projects.

The lab allows students to better understand the behaviour of fluids in their static and dynamic states, as well as energy losses and efficiency in hydraulic pumps.

• Free-regime hydraulic channel, CF 80, of 7 metres in length (with measurement of hydraulic parameters, slope variation and the insertion of obstacles as well as a wave generator).
• AFT friction panel for energy loss in pipes, elbows and valves.
• FME 13 hydraulic pump efficiency set.
• Bernoulli piping energy panels (2 units); single-fluid Reynolds regime panel (2 units).
• Set of hydrostatic devices.
• Floating body for stability of submerged bodies.