COCCHI

ITALY (see also List of Individuals)

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9.6.1912 Bologna/I - 14.2.2006 Bologna/I

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Giovanni Cocchi graduated as an engineer from the University of Bologna in 1935 and he became an assistant at its Hydraulic Institute in 1938, where he was a collaborator of Umberto Puppini (1884-1946). After World War II, Cocchi was involved in the laboratory reconstruction. From 1954, he was a professor of hydraulics and from 1968 to 1982 he directed the Institute of Hydraulics. Cocchi was in parallel also the head of the Institute of Aeronautics and he presided over the Engineering Faculty from 1968 to 1975. He was awarded for these services the Medal of Bologna University and in 1974 also the Medal of Culture and Arts. Cocchi was in addition a Member of the Academy of Sciences, Bologna.

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Despite the load in university organization, Cocchi presented a number of technical writings, including works in technical physics, the sciences of construction, hydraulics and hydraulic structures. He advanced in 1946 the Cross-Cocchi Method for hyperstatic structures. In hydraulics, Cocchi added to the water wave theory, to the water hammer phenomenon and he also proposed improved designs for ventilators. He thereby used both a sound theoretical approach combined with an experimental verification of his results. He for instance took interest in the resistance pattern of pipe flow, a topic further elaborated by his former PhD students Giannantonio Pezzoli (1927-) and Enrico Marchi (1925-2007). These works aimed at a novel appreciation of the shape effect in conduit flow by accounting for the effective instead of the geometrical hydraulic radius. This effect is currently not considered relevant, because of its relative small importance mainly as compared with the estimation of the roughness pattern.

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_{Cocchi, G. (1953). Moto laminare vario in tubi cilindrici di sezione circolare. Rendiconti}

_{Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Serie 8 15(6): 393-401.}

_{Cocchi, G., Pezzoli, G. (1959). Sulle perdite di carico dovute ad una sarascinesca. L'Energia Elettrica 36(4): 297-305.}

_{Cocchi, G. (1961). Moto laminare uniforme con superficie libera in condotto di sezione circolare. Atti Accademia delle Scienze Bologna, Serie 11 (8): 24-49.}

_{Cocchi, G. (1978). Onde irrotazionale al limite del frangimento. Rendiconti Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Serie 8 64(5/6): 473-488.}

_{Cocchi, G. (1985). Il colpo d'ariete nelle condotte a tutta perdita di carico. Atti Accademia delle Scienze Bologna Serie 14 (2): 161-168.}

_{Pezzoli, G. (2006). Giovanni Cocchi. Personal communication. P}