The Hydraulic Pump Decoded

With a name like ‘hydraulic’, it is kind of obvious that a hydraulic pump is somehow related to fluids. We can even deduce that it’s somehow used to pump fluids. But, what exactly does its role with fluids? What does it do? Well, here’s a short overview:

How it’s built?
So, we know from basic science that energy (or any substance, for that matter) has the tendency to flow from where there is a lot of it to where there is little. The pump, though, reverses this process by its mechanical action (therefore, mechanical energy). In a hydraulic pump, any mechanical energy is transferred to fluids. The energy generated by the pump is transferred to the fluid within the pump, therefore energizing the fluid to move from an area of low density to high density. Further in the chain of things, this energy held by the fluid is eventually transferred to other parts of the pump (or machine) completing the action. The amount of energy needed, and therefore produced, can be controlled with the use of hydraulic valves.

Types of Pumps

  1. Hydrostatic Pumps: In this type of pump, there is a fixed amount of fluid that is constantly used to generate energy. The amount of energy generated cannot be adjusted.
  2. Hydrodynamic Pumps: These pumps generally use hydraulic valves to allow the amount of energy produced to be adjusted, basically by adjusting the volume of fluid that is being displaced within the pump.

What Does It Do?
This is such a basic design that there can literally be thousands upon thousands of applications of the pump in residential as well as industrial settings. Here are just a few popular applications:

  • Water pumps: The most obvious application of this kind of pump would be to use it to pump water to buildings.
  • Construction: These pumps used in series can be used to build heavy machinery like an excavator.
  • Lifts: Not elevators, but small lifts like in your dump truck and such can be powered by hydraulics.

While these are only a few popular applications of hydraulic pumps, there are tons of applications of it in our day to day lives.