No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
The hydraulic hammer has been used as a production tool since the early 12th century. It hasundergone various changes, particularly in terms of water supplies, the method of arm actuation and the head’sweight. 16th century technical literature provides relatively accurate descriptions of this object. Archaeologically,several of these tools have been excavated across Europe. Archaeometric researches have primarily concentratedon the iron production with such a hammerrather than the tool itself.A new approach of the hydraulic hammer is proposed, based on modern remains and excavations recently carriedout in the Pyrenees on a 19th-century forge. This approach aims to define the hammer's water requirements andworking capacity, using both modelling and in situ experimentation.Water power is an essential resource for forging and the conditions under which it is used, such as the availablehead and flow rate, are an essential criterion in choosing a steelmaking site. Hydraulic resources limit the size ofthe drop hammer and a quantitative approach to this system allows a better assessment of this constraint. A modelof the drive mechanism, based on the equations of solid mechanics, calculates the minimum flow required, whichis then compared with the available hydraulic power. Excavations of hydraulic forges in the Pyrenees providemany of the parameters required for modelling, but some of the data relating to the design of the hammer remainpurely hypothetical. Modelling makes it possible to assess these hypotheses with the criterion of hydraulic power.The hydraulic hammer's working capacity is determined by both the power developed at the hammer head and theforce at the time of impact on the iron. To quantify these values, we conducted experimental measurements on anactive hydraulic hammer (https://www.forges-de-pyrene.com/). An accelerometer was attached to the hammer'shead for this purpose. The processed data were then used to estimate the machine's power. They are also used todefine the force at the time of impact. This provides insight into their working capacity and allows comparisonsbetween different types of hydraulic hammers.This study of a hydraulic hammer from the 19th century demonstrate the interest of those new methods forstudying mechanisms in an archaeological context. Those methods are applicable to other systems in the Pyreneesor elsewhere and for other periods. The ultimate aim is to integrate these studies into an overall model describingthe production system.
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.