BATAILLARD

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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2.8.1881 Romanel-sur-Morges/CH - 28.3.1976 Newcastle-upon-Tyne/UK

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Victor-Louis Bataillard born in the French part of Switzerland graduated in 1904 as a mechanical engineer from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH in Zurich. From 1904 to 1908 he stayed with Escher Wyss Company in Zurich being involved in the design of hydraulic machinery. He moved to London in 1919 and in 1923 further to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to collaborate with Vickers Armstrong. Then, he continued with another firm in Stockport from 1927 to 1931, during which period he was sent to the former Sri Lanka to erect a hydropower plant. From 1932, Bataillard was involved in the Scottish hydroelectric scheme in Galloway being made up of four power stations. This scheme was a model for the Snowy River Scheme in Australia. After World War II, Bataillard was in a team of eight engineers sent by the British Government to investigate the advances of German hydroelectricity, for which mission he was given the rank of Colonel. Bataillard retired around 1950, but was retained by Merz&McLellan Consulting Engineers in Newcastle as a consultant until 1960.

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Bataillard is known for the translation of the classic work of Lorenzo Allievi (1856-1940) on water hammer hydraulics, together with his colleague Robert Dubs (1880-1963). That translation was responsible for a wide diffusion of Allievi's theory in the German speaking countries, and for implantation of hydraulic machinery and design elements to counter water hammer pressures that would damage hydropower schemes. Each penstock subjected to any variation of hydraulic conditions, such as opening or closure scenarios at its lower end due to a change of load conditions on a turbine is subjected with unsteady pressure waves traveling typically with 1,000 m/s across the pipeline. The pressure peaks essentially are proportional to the product of wave celerity times fluid velocity and may become so large that the pipeline bursts, resulting in the partial loss of a penstock installation. Allievi together with Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky (1847-1921) were the first to formulate the basic theory of the water hammer phenomenon.

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_{Anonymous (1970). Victor-Louis Bataillard. Gesellschaft ehemaliger Studierender GEP der ETH 62: 62. ETH: Zurich.}

_{Bower, J. (2004). Victor-Louis Bataillard. Personal communication. P}

_{Dubs, R., Bataillard, V. (1909). Allgemeine Theorie über die veränderliche Bewegung des Wassers in Leitungen. Springer: Berlin.}