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FEATURE

ARTICLE

HENRY DARCY-ENGINEER and BENEFACTOR

of

MANKIND

Introduction

GEORGE FANCHER

MEMBER A/ME

The

petroleum industry, and particularly that

part

of

it that is concerned with the production of oil and nat

ural gas, depends upon the ability of these fluids to flow

through

the

porous

rocks of the subterranean reservoirs

in which they

are

imprisoned.

The

ability

of

fluids to flow

through

porous rock

s

expressed in the language of

mathematics by

Darcy's

law, and this mathematical

statement is the basis of many petroleum engineering

computations. Petroleum engineers have found it the most

useful, fruitful, and dependable expression of the perti

nent factors which govern the ability

of

reservoirs to

produce oil, gas,

and

water and

of

wells to yield these

fluids. Consequently, it s

not too much to say that Darcy s

law is

the

very basis of

the

modern petroleum industry.

Darcy's law was stated and published just 100 years

ago, when Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy* published

his classic paper on the flow of water through sand filter

beds.

I t

is fitting that this important anniversary be com

memorated by the petroleum industry, although no one

would be more surprised than

Henry Darcy

himself that

the

work

to which he devoted his comparatively brief pro

fessional career should provide the basis for a gigantic in

dustry which s the bulwark of modern civilization, an in

dustry which began just three years after the first pub

lished statement of Darcy's law. Although petroleum en

gineers make use of Darcy s law daily in the preparation

of

professional analyses and reports, and executives of

the oil industry, bankers and business men, public offi

cials, politicians, and heads of state arrive

at

decisions on

the basis of these analyses and reports, the details of the

life and work of this humble Frenchman and public

servant, Henry Darcy, are known to few .

Early

Life

of

Darcy

Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy was born June 10,

1803, in the city of Dijon, chief town in the Department

of

Cote d'Or and former capital of the old Duchy of

h a i r m

Dept. of

P e

troleum En

g

ineering, University of

Di rector,

th

e

Texas

P et ro le

um

Re se

ar c

h Co

mmitt

ee.

. :;.Darcy s

given

name:

the Fren

ch spellin g is

Henri

; the An g li

cized ve rsion is

Henr

y.

The

Secr

et a

r y of t he Ci

ty of

Di

jon

has

been

asked

what his offic ial birth l econd shows,

but

his reply has

not

been r eceived.

An early photo

g r a ph (1821)

carried th

e

name

..Henry, as

does

the

t itl e

page

of at

least

on e of his

bo

oks. His

jo

urnal

articles simply ca rry the name HM. Darc y, n l e ( ' l ' ~

logical

articles

and obitu

a

ries

in F r

ench,

a s wen as the LIbrary

of

Congress catalogue.

ca

rry

the name

DARCY (Henri-Philibel't

Gaspard) . At

this time

we co

nclude

that Darcy himself pre

fe

rred and

u

se

d the An g licized

sp

elling .

SPE 762-G

]

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

AUSTIN TEX

Burgundy. Dijon s situated at

the

confluence of the rivers

Ouche and Saone, some 210 miles southeast of Paris by

rail (about 160 miles by air

line). I t

s a city of order

and discipline, a city of old forts, palaces, bridges, public

buildings

and

works-factors no doubt of some impor

tance in shaping and molding

the

lives

of

its citizens.

Deprived at 14 of his father, who was Collector of the

Registry and well thought of by his superiors and fellow

citizens,

Henry

Darcy was reared by his mother, a woman

of rare

merit who, although left a widow

at

an early age,

devoted

her

energy to the rearing of

her

two sons and

who was responsible for their education.

HENRY

DARCY 1821

ELE

VE DE L'EcOLE POLYTECHNIQUE

This

school

photograph of

Henry Darcy

was

made at

the age of 18 and is

helieved

to be the only

one pres

ently

in

existence. A great

nephew of Henry

a r ~ y

Colonel Darcy,

sent

this picture to

E. G. Trostel

explam

ing that

all

others were

destroyed

during World War II .

J O U R N A L

O PET R O l EU M

T EC H N O l O G Y

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Darcy was sent to London in April, 1850, to obtain

information

on the

paving

of

streets with macadam, which

at that time

had

been utilized only on roads

in

open coun

try in

France. His

report, a complete treatise

on

the

subject, was published in

t

850,

and

in recognition he

was named an Officer

o

the I.egion of Honor and

appointed Divisional Inspector in Paris, duty which re

quired participation in

the

Council. Here he distinguished

himself until his physical strength began to fail. His

health had begun to deteriorate

at

the

end of

1842. In

creasingly poor health required

that

he ask

for

leaves

of

absence

and

eventually release from

duty

in Dec., 1855.

Following his retirement from official duty he devoted

such time as his increasingly poor health permitted to

research and writing, working with feverish anxiety to

complete projects while

he

had

the

necessary strength

of

mind and

body.

In the

last

month of

1857 his health

had

improved to the extent that he looked forward to the

completion of his work, when

at

the end

of

December he

was stricken with pneumonia, to which he succumbed

Jan. 2, 1858.

Scientific

Works

of Darcy

The

scientific works

of Darcy,

remarkable because all

were written during times

of

illness

and

suffering, are

numerous and

important.

One

deals with experimental

research on the movement

of

water in pipes. He was

concerned with the great discrepancy between the con

ventional formulas for capacity and rate of flow of water

in pipes when he began his famous experimental work

in Paris.

Nearly 200

experiments were

made

with pipe

varying in

diameter

from

the

smallest size available to

half a meter, thick and thin pipe

of

various kinds

of

iron, steel, and glass, pipe

of

polished surface, and pipe

fouled

and

unfouled.

The

distribution of velocity in

pipes was studied. The work demonstrated clearly the

great effect

of

surface

upon

fluid flow in conduits, and

his great contribution

to

hydraulics lies in his conclu

sive demonstration

of

the fact that the resistance to flow

depends upon the type and condition of the boundary

surface.

Darcy

also designed

and

constructed a Pitot-tube

for

use

in measurement of the rate of

flow

of water

in con

duits, which was notable for accuracy and reliability.

The

device clearly was patentable, but Darcy charac

teristically assigned it

to the

public.

Darcy's Law

From the

point

of

view

of the

petroleum industry

Darcy's greatest work is that which he called The

Public Fountains

of

Dijon but which probably should

be titled A Treatise

on the

Distribution

of

Water. The

book encompasses not only a description

of the water

distribution system

of

Dijon

but

also a complete outline

of

principles to guide engineers in the solution of similar

problems.

The

different means

of

procuring water are

discussed: pumps,

water

diverted from rivers, artesian

wells,

and

springs.

The

origin

of

springs, the

creati ::>n of

artificial springs, how to find springs, the effect of low

ering fluid level,

the

utilization

of

water from aquifer

beds,

and the

physical laws which enable engineers to

compute capacity and rate are discussed fully. Even the

effect

of

increasing the diameter

of

a well bore on the

capacity of the well is included-this and similar topics

which petroleum engineers ignored for 70 years.

4

The chapter on filtration perhaps

is of

the most inter

est to petroleum engineers because it contains what

is

now universally termed Darcy's law. The

chapter

was

hased upon his own research (a research not required

for his work at Dijon, where the water from the springs

arrives at the reservoir pure and uncontaminated) and

undertaken solely because of intellectual curiosity aroused

by

the

doubts of distinguished scientists and engineers

(principally English)

on the

utility

of

packing in filters.

This work provides

the

basis

for

the accurate design

of

filter beds and is the basis for all reservoir engineering

computations in the petroleum industry.

The

unit

of

permeability stemming from Darcy's

equation

and

standardized by

the

petroleum industry

(API

R. P. No. 27,

3rd

Ed., Sept., 1952) fittingly

was named the darcy. His disciple and colleague,

Dupuit, who carried on Darcy's unfinished work after

his

(Darcy's) death

analytically expresses the change

(1865)

in head resulting from radial flow

of

a fluid

through a porous medium toward a well penetrating

completely

the

porous stratum by the equation

r

t:: h= In

2 7r

kz

w

which is the well-known radial flow formula

for

a well,

belatedly rediscovered by petroleum engineers in

the

1930's, which is the starting point for most analyses

of

well performance in petroleum engineering.

Darcy's

last

work

based upon experiment, which

death did

not

allow him to finish, was

upon the

move

ment

of

running water in open canals, work under

taken

at

the request

of

the Minister

of

Public Works.

The

work

was completed by his faithful and capable

pupil and colleague, Bazin, after Darcy's death, accord

ing to Darcy's plans and analysis.

Petroleum engineers surely can find inspiration, exam

ple, and precept in the life and work

of

Henri Philibert

Gaspard Darcy, who achieved distinction through a life

time of unselfish devotion to science and public service.

The fruits of his genius live on and provide, through

basic application to

the

technology

of

producing oil, sus

tenance and livelihood for thousands ignorant

of

his life

and perhaps even

of

his name.

Truly

this eminent engi

neer Darcy, whose life was evaluated eloquently by a

colleague in the words Lover

of

science, devoted to the

public good, and absolutely devoid

of

self-interest, was

a benefactor to all mankind as well as to the petroleum

industry.

May

petroleum engineers

in

some measure

emulate him as they

plan

to commemorate

the

centen

nial

of

his greatest contribution to them; namely, the

inspiration

of

his life and work.

Source Material

1 Charie-Marsaines: Notice necrologique

sur

M.

Darcy, inspecteur general des ponts et chaussees,

Annales des Ponts et Chaussees

(1858),

Series 3,

15,90.

2. Larousse du

XX

e

Siecle, Tome

Deuxieme

(Carm-D),

674.

3

Muteau, C., and Garnier, J.:

Ga erie Bourguignonne.

3 vols. (1858-1860) J. Picard, Dijon, 3, 340.

4. Rouse, H., and Ince, S.: History

of

hydraulics, sup

plement to

a Houille Blanche" (1954),

No. 5

(Grenoble). 169.

5.

Tarbe

de St-Hardouin,

F.

P.

H.:

Notices biogra

phiques sur les ingenieurs des ponts et chaussees,

Baudry Cie., Paris

(1884),

224.

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