fluid power and fluid systems

FLUID POWER AND FLUID SYSTEMS

1. What is Fluid Power?

• As we know, a fluid is a substance which is capable of flowing. Therefore the fluid can be either a liquid or a gas.

• The term 'fluid power' refers to the use of fluids (i.e., liquid and gas) for the development of methods for power transmission, control, and utilization.

• Definition: Fluid power may be defined as the technology that deals with the generation, control, and transmission of power using pressurized fluids.

• Branches of fluid power: In fact, fluid power is the general term. Actually the fluid power systems can be further divided into pneumatic and hydraulic systems, depending on the fluid medium used to transmit force, as shown in Fig.1.1.

In other words,

• The hydraulic system employs liquids (such as water, petroleum oils, and synthetic oils) as the working medium.

• The pneumatic system employs compressed air as the working medium.

2. Types of Fluid Systems

• There are two different types fluid systems. They are :

1. Fluid transport systems, and

2. Fluid power systems.

• The differences between them are presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1. Fluid transport systems Vs Fluid power systems

1. Fluid Transport Systems: 

• The objective of the fluid transport systems is to transport/deliver fluids from one place to another place to achieve some useful purpose.

• Examples: Some of the examples of fluid transport systems include:

(i) Transport of water from water reservoirs (such as wells/rivers) to houses/industries using pipe lines; and

(ii) Transport of petroleum oil/gas from one country to another through oil/gas pipe lines.

2. Fluid Power Systems: 

• The fluid power systems are primarily designed to perform work. That is, these systems use pressurized fluids to produce some useful mechanical movements to accomplish the desired work.

• Examples:

(i) The oil is used in various construction and earth-moving equipments to accomplish the desired movements and hence to perform the designed work.

(ii) The compressed air is used in pneumatic cranes to produce all the required crane movements.