STEMStart! organized the Hydraulics workshop by partnering with the Lawrence Hall of Science. ​On October 8, 2022, students ranging from 4th to 8th grades participated in a hands-on 2.5-hour workshop where they learned about hydraulics. Through this workshop, participants were introduced to engineering and properties of fluids. While learning, participants immediately applied these principles as they envisioned and built a hydraulics device on their own which lifted and moved objects.



​Missed the event? Check out the following starter guide to Hydraulics

For more external resources, see the FAQs at the end of this page

Why did STEMStart! choose hydraulics as the area of interest? 
​
The short answer is, hydraulics pave the world around us. 

Hydraulics are simple in principle

Hydraulics is useful everywhere
Hydraulics allow machines to transmit force from one point to another using an incompressible fluid. In most cases, this also increases the force applied at one end for a given amount of effort.
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Hydraulics work on the same principle as the mechanical lever, a simple machine that functions like a seesaw. If one end of the lever is pushed down, the other end moves up. If the lever is well designed, then a machine can lift a very heavy object without much effort. This is especially true when the lever’s fulcrum is close to its load.  

​Elevators are a good example of the simplicity of hydraulics. From just the push of a button, a hydraulic system can take you up or down many floors of a hotel or office building. When operating heavy machinery, personnel enjoy the simplistic nature of hydraulics to position their equipment in precise locations for work.
Hydraulics are used for critical components in machines today. They are used in car brakes, gasoline pumps, elevators, and amusement park rides. If they were not reliable, we would be anxious every time they crossed our path. 

​Hydraulics also give users the ability to control whatever weight is being moved from a remote or control panel. An operator can start, stop, raise, lower, accelerate, or decelerate with just the push of a button. Hence, they are used a lot in industries including agriculture, construction, manufacturing, transportation, and a broad variety of other markets.  For example, tractors use them to operate different attachments such as loaders, backhoes, mowers, and grapples. Forklifts use hydraulics to raise and lower thousands of pounds at once. Construction companies use hydraulics in their machines to perform a variety of tasks. Lift trucks use them to raise personnel to their workstations.

Fun Trivia about Hydraulics

It all started in
BC

The origin of Hydraulics

The origins of hydraulics can be traced back as far as the 6000 BC, where water power was used by ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians for irrigation. Perhaps one of the earlier modern creation was by the Hero of Alexandria, back in the 100s, where hydraulics was used to create the first known steam engine, also known as an Aeolipile. 
Since then, there have been other creations, such as the first music sequencer, a water powered flute in the 900s and the first water-powered programmable robots by the Al-Jazari in 1206. However, it wasn't until the the 17th century where Pascal discovered one of the most valuable principles, "Pascal Law". And in 1795, a man called Joseph Bramah put those ideas in to use, by multiplying a small amount of force and create large amounts of pressure capable of powering machinery and lifting very heavy objects, leading to the invention of the first hydraulic press.
gallons per minute!

Before CGI, there was fluid pressure

While many films now incorporate CGI for visual effects, action films have traditionally used hydraulics to make large aliens and creatures move on set. Be it "Jurassic Park", "King Kong" or "The Terminator", hydraulics made action in all these films possible. 

When thinking about hydraulics in film, the titular title goes to none other than the 1996 classic Jurassic Park. One of the most popular franchises in the world, it has also expanded beyond film, to comic books, amusement parks, and video games. The use of "animatronics" in Jurassic Park is an iconic one, as the T-Rex remains the largest animatronic ever used in film, and its final model measures out to a whopping 20 feet tall & 40 feet long, weighing at 9000 pounds. To bring these magnificent dinosaurs to life, different valves pumped almost 60 gallons of hydraulic fluid in one single minute! ​
psi

Hydraulics are essential in space

​Incredibly powerful hydraulics are what is used to power NASA’s space shuttles. The pumps NASA uses have an RPM of 3600, each potentially providing an impressive, and nearly unheard of, 3050 PSI. The NASA space shuttle has a powerful hydraulic system that handles various aspects of the shuttle’s flight control, including positioning of aero surfaces, landing gear deployment, and nose wheel steering.

Spot hydraulics in your everyday life

  • While on the road
  • At home
  • While outside
  • In nature
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While on the road

​Cars: A hydraulic brake circuit operates a car's brakes on all four wheels.

Planes: Modern aircraft use hydraulic systems to activate their controls and to operate landing gears and brakes.

Energy: Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, has allowed the extraction of natural gas and petroleum from previously inaccessible deposits.

Gasoline pumps: Hydraulics is used to draw fuel from the gas station's storage tank to the vehicle.

Vehicle repair and maintenance. A hydraulic system is what makes it possible for a very heavy car to be raised and brought down while being serviced.

At home

Dishwashers: Hydraulics is used to increase water pressure for better cleaning. Dishwashers fitted with hydraulics are also generally quieter

​Toilet seat: Hydraulics are used in some toilet seats for those with mobility issues that stop them from assessing the bathroom, using a hydraulic lift mechanism to adjust the seat’s height accordingly.

Office chairs: Hydraulics makes it possible for the chair to rise up or go down, lean backwards and forwards as you adjust its levers. 

​Household Appliances: Linear hydraulic dampers are used in household appliances (eg. washing machines, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators)
to make the movement of structures quiet, smooth and safe, avoiding damage and increasing the life of mechanical and electric parts.

While outside

Snowplows: Hydraulic mechanisms allow the plow to move up or down and side to side.
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Barber chairs: The pump that the barber steps on uses a hydraulic lift mechanism to adjust the chair’s height accordingly.
Elevators: Some types of elevators use a hydraulic mechanism to power the elevator car's movement and make them stop when needed.

Bakeries: Hydraulics are used in large-scale bakeries to mass produce breads and pastries, allowing them to be lifted, flipped over and moved along conveyor belts for packing. 

Amusement park rides: Hydraulic equipment provide and control motion for attractions such as the Ferris Wheel.

Construction machines: Equipment such as cranes, forklifts, jacks, pumps and fall arrest safety harnesses use hydraulics to lift and lower objects.

Theatrical presentations: Hydraulic power makes it possible for stages to be raised higher and bring them back into place.

In nature

Garden Hose: A hydraulic hose puts in to work the water distribution and its pressure allows water to be pushed out of the hose. 

Invertebrate Creatures: Invertebrate creatures like mollusks, crustaceans, jellyfish, and small spiders use bio-hydraulics to move.

Plants: The ascent of water from root to leaf is due to bio-hydraulics that moves large volumes of water against gravity disproportionate to the weight of the stem.

FAQs on Hydraulics

USEFUL EXTERNAL RESOURCES TO GET STARTED
Learn about the basics of hydraulics for tractors, farm equipment, log splitters or other equipment and machinery, how hydraulic systems work and how to maintain a hydraulic pump
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/cms/life-out-here/tool-shop/the-garage/hydraulics-101-for-beginners

Cool DIY Hydraulics + Pneumatic Devices to build at home
https://www.stem-inventions.com/hydraulics

The physics behind hydraulics visualized
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/hydraulics.html

A comprehensive Hydraulics curriculum
​https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/hydraulics-101/
INTERESTING CAREERS TO PURSUE RELATED TO HYDRAULICS
Short Answer: Becoming an inventor and builder

Long Answer: There are many options! Some options include becoming a...

https://cheddarden.com/jobs-use-hydraulics/

HOW TO STAY INTERESTED AND INVOLVED
  • ​Take a Physics course
  • Take a Calculus and Trigonometry Course
  • Take a Chemistry course
  • Build your own hydraulics and pneumatic device (your own desk well! or desk pump!)
  • Take on different DIY hydraulics projects (see external resources tab)
  • Study a related major in university: most relevant major is civil engineering
  • Speak to hydraulics experts by joining interest communities in your area
  • Apply your knowledge of hydraulics in fixing your vehicles
BUDDING + RELEVANT APPLICATIONS FOR HYDRAULIC ENGINEERS
Computational Hydraulics: This can potentially cover most aspects of hydraulics engineering. If numbers and modeling are your game, then employment opportunities abound. For example, if you’re an animal lover, your models for fish passage might just save some bluegill while allowing industry to operate. As a side note, it can also prevent fatalities to another species called humans, as it’s been highly utilized to predict water disasters.

Irrigation: Creations such as canals are key to transport flow and their origin goes all the way back to the days of the pharaohs. “They improve the protection of the river and are perfect to protect the sides of the rivers...You’re looking at open channel which means that it is open to the air,” Leon says. Pipe flows also fit into this area, including dealing with sewage issues — maybe not the most glamorous area for hydraulics engineers but highly important.

Stormwater Management: Utilizing numerical modeling, designs are incorporated not just for immediate solution but anticipation of problems down the road. And stormwater is not a problem to be underestimated. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website, it can cause everything from stream bank erosion, to increased turbidity, to contamination of multiple bodies of water. An example of a hydraulic solution they give is grass-covered hydraulic conveyance channels. “It has many opportunities because any local area can find themselves having this issue, and the negative impact can be ongoing,” Leon says.

Sediment: When considering water issues, sediment can be an afterthought. Yet, if it is found in excess, it can create measurable erosion problems. It can also even induce the movement of boulders, which brings its own possible dangers. Analysis allows a view of what is affecting the balance and what solutions can apply. For example, for the city of Austin, well known for its beautiful lake views, they work with the steady state methods of incipient motion and sediment continuity, while the dynamic methods employed are sediment continuity and sediment routing (according to www.austintexas.gov).

Source: ​https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/4-leading-job-areas-hydraulics