Why Does Pipe Flow Hydraulics Need an Institute?

It is not the name I would have chosen. And originally it was called the Hydraulic Society when founded a little over a century ago in 1917. In 1933 it was renamed the Hydraulic Institute (also known as just "HI"). And today HI is "the global authority on pumps and pumping systems".

Originally, and for many decades, one had to be a North American pump manufacturer to join HI. Later this was expanded to include other companies associated with the pump industry. What exactly does HI do?

According to the HI website:

HI is a pump association of positive displacement and rotodynamic, centrifugal pump manufacturers and suppliers whose mission is to be a value-adding resource to member companies, engineering consulting firms, and pump users worldwide. HI develops comprehensive pump standards, guidelines and guidebooks and serves as a forum for pump industry information and collaboration through volunteer participation and at pump conferences. HI standards cover pump design and applications, installation, operation and maintenance, pump testing, definitions and nomenclature and address such topics as allowable vibration, pump efficiency, nozzle loads, pump piping, viscosity correction and more.

In a nutshell, HI is an association of pump related professionals who develop standards and guidance material.

Further, HI acts as an expert resource to the United States Department of Energy (DOE):

With the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) 2011 decision to propose pump efficiency regulation, HI has taken a leading role in representing the pump industry in negotiating fair and appropriate regulations designed to achieve energy savings goals. Refer to DOE Pump Efficiency Rulemaking for further updates.

Until 1998, a company like AFT could not join HI. As mentioned above, HI was restricted to pump manufacturers in North America. Then in 1998 HI expanded its membership qualifications to include companies who create products related to pumps (they are called Associate Members). In 2005 they expanded again to include companies who use pumps or design pump systems (they are called Standards Partners). And then they expanded membership to those who sold into North America but did not have to actually be in North America.

AFT first joined HI back in 2005 as an associate member. Right now we are attending their virtual June Technical Meeting (I attended a session this morning). Their next live meeting (post-COVID) will be in October in San Antonio, Texas. AFT staff participates on their committees. For example, we helped them with their newest pump viscosity correction standard ANSI/HI 9.6.7 (see this link to the 2015 version - the 2021 version is coming out soon). And one of our team wrote a conference paper about that work. We teach webinars for them (see Fundamentals Of Water Hammer And Surge Suppression). In fact, this Thursday our sister company, PMTG, will teach another webinar (Check Valve Selection To Minimize Waterhammer).

Last week I was in a meeting where HI discussed creating a committee on waterhammer. That looks like it will approved. If so, I am looking forward to working with other hydraulics professionals on that. In fact, if you are interested in waterhammer you may want to participate.

HI is a unique collection of people and organizations that create and deliver valuable content to engineers around the world. AFT is proud to be a member.