French engineer

Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy (1803–1858) was an accomplished French engineer, researcher, and civil servant, who is credited with building roads, water systems, and railroads. He is best known for a number of major contributions and advances in the understanding of fluid flow in pipes, open channels, and porous media. Darcy was the first researcher to suspect the existence of the boundary layer in fluid flow. His work contributed in the development of the Darcy-Weisbach equation, recognized as the best empirical relation for pipe flow resistance. Darcy also made major contributions to open channel flow research and provided the first quantitative measurements of artesian well flow. An enduring legacy of his work, Darcy's Law for flow in porous media, a cornerstone for several fields of study including groundwater hydrology, soil physics, and petroleum engineering remains widely used.

Darcy was born...