French hydraulic (hydraulics) engineer who derived formulas for computing the discharge of fluids from pipes and open channels.

Educated in Paris, Du Buat served as a military engineer from 1761 to 1791. In his writings, he compiled a wealth of experimental data from which he determined his basic algebraic expression for discharge from pipes and channels. Although valid only within the range of his experimental data, this equation provided the best available means at the time of predicting the performance of water-supply systems and similar works. His emphasis on achieving results that would be of practical use in the design of hydraulic works strongly influenced the development of experimental hydraulics in the 18th and 19th centuries.