fairfolio
Saved Projects

Pneumatics vs. Hydraulics

CSEF · 2017 Applied Mechanics & Structures

Beck T. Pedersen · Jacoby Creek Elementary School, Bayside, Humboldt County

Overview

Objectives/Goals Pneumatic/hydraulic systems are used in a wide variety of applications such as toys, construction equipment, and robotics. The goal of my project was to determine whether a hydraulic or pneumatic system could generate more force. The amount of force a pneumatic/hydraulic system can generate determines the type of uses the system would be most appropriate for. Methods/Materials I made a crane-like arm with an Erector set, and a pneumatic/hydraulic system using two 60 mL syringes connected with plastic tubing. The arm was operated by depressing the plunger of one syringe, which forced the plunger of the other syringe (connected to the arm) to expand, and made the arm push down on a scale. I filled the pneumatic/hydraulic system with different substances, and with each substance measured the maximum force of the arm pressing down on the scale. I tested the force of air (pneumatics), water (hydraulics), and canola oil (hydraulics). Results The hydraulic force generated with water was greater than the pneumatic force generated with air. I was not able to successfully measure the hydraulic force generated with canola oil because it was too thick to work in my system properly. Measurements of hydraulic force generated with water was approximately 60% stronger than the pneumatic force generated with air. Conclusions/Discussion My experiment indicated that the hydraulic system generated more force than the pneumatic system, and suggests that hydraulics should be used for projects requiring more force such as moving heavy objects. I think the hydraulic system generated more fluid power because water is not compressible and air is highly compressible.

Summary statement

I made a mechanical arm operated by a pneumatic/hydraulic system filled with various substances to test which system and substance generated more force.

Help received

I designed and built the mechanical arm and hydraulic system myself. I performed measurements with some assistance from my father.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2017 Applied Mechanics & Structures · Entry J0322

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google