La Houille Blanche, N°5 (Octobre 2009), pp. 183-188
DOI: 10.1051/lhb/2009072

Un hydraulicien d'exception bien en avance sur son époque : Jean-Baptiste Charles Joseph Bélanger (1790-1874)

Hubert Chanson

The University of Queensland School of Civil Engineering, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia ; Tél : +61 (0)7 3365 2561, Fax : +61 (0)7 3365 4599, url : www.uq.edu.au/~e2chans/

Publié en ligne le 4 novembre 2009

Abstract - An Exceptional Hydraulic Engineer ahead of his Time : Jean-Baptiste Charles Joseph Bélanger (1790-1874)
The name of Jean-Baptiste BÉLANGER is often linked with the Bélanger equation and the application of the momentum principle to the hydraulic jump. A study of his 1828 treaty shows that the manuscript was focused on the study of gradually varied open channel flows, with the development of the backwater equation. Jean-Baptiste BÉLANGER's development was remarkable by its lucidity and cleverness, which yielded some very accurate results. He further discussed the singularity of the backwater equation, and introduced the concept of critical flow conditions, many decades before contemporary scientists. On the other hand, and although he incorrectly applied the energy principle to the hydraulic jump, his equation for a hydraulic jump in a rectangular horizontal channel was improper. The Bélanger equation was derived ten years later.

Résumé - Le nom de Jean-Baptiste BÉLANGER est souvent associé au ressaut hydraulique, et à l'application de l'équation de conservation de la quantité de mouvement. Une étude de son essai publié en 1828 montre que le thème principal était le calcul des écoulements à surface libre graduellement variés, avec le développement de l'équation du remous. Dans son essai, Jean-Baptiste BÉLANGER dériva l'équation du remous avec une lucidité remarquable, et sa dérivation donne des résultats d'une précision étonnante. En discutant les singularités de l'équation du remous, il introduisit aussi les conditions d'écoulement critique, et le concept de profondeur critique, bien avant ses contemporains. Par contre, en 1828, BÉLANGER appliqua incorrectement le principe de conservation d'énergie au ressaut hydraulique. Il dériva l'équation de Bélanger, pour un canal rectangulaire et horizontal, quelques années plus tard.

Auteur de correspondance : h.chanson@uq.edu.au

© Société Hydrotechnique de France 2009

The OpenURL standard is a protocol for transmission of metadata describing the resource that you wish to access. An OpenURL link contains article metadata and directs it to the OpenURL server of your choice. The OpenURL server can provide access to the resource and also offer complementary services (specific search engine, export of references...). The OpenURL link can be generated by different means.

• If your librarian has set up your subscription with an OpenURL resolver, OpenURL links appear automatically on the abstract pages.
• You can define your own OpenURL resolver with your EDPS Account. In this case your choice will be given priority over that of your library.
• You can use an add-on for your browser (Firefox or I.E.) to display OpenURL links on a page (see http://www.openly.com/openurlref/). You should disable this module if you wish to use the OpenURL server that you or your library have defined.