Pierre Henri Hugoniot

Who was Pierre Henri Hugoniot?

Pierre-Henri Hugoniot who mostly lived in Montbéliard,. He was an inventor, mathematician, and physicist who worked on fluid mechanics, especially on issues related to material shock.

After going into the marine artillery upon his graduation from the École Polytechnique in 1872, Hugoniot became professor of mechanics and ballistics at the School of Artillery Lorient and Deputy Director of the Central Laboratory of the artillery Navy. He was promoted to captain in January 1884, and in April was appointed assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the École polytechnique. He conducted, along with his colleague Hippolyte Sebert, research on the trigger gas accompanying the detonation of a cannon.

He invented the theory based on conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, which allowed for improvements in fluid flow studies. The Rankine-Hugoniot equation has been named in his honor.