EE 204: FLUID MECHANICS

LECTURE 3: FLUID STATICS

(SUBMERGED PLANE)
AUTUMN 2017
Outline

■ Hydrostatic Force on a Plane Surface

■ Pressure Prism
■ Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
■ Example Problems
 Hydrostatic Force on a Plane Surface: Tank Bottom

Simplest Case: Tank bottom with a uniform pressure distribution

p - h = p atm - p atm

p  h

Now, the resultant Force:

FR = p A
Acts through the Centroid

A = area of the Tank Bottom

 Hydrostatic Force on a Plane Surface: General Case

The origin O is at the Free

Surface.
q is the angle the plane makes
with the free surface.

y is directed along the plane

surface.

A is the area of the surface.

dA is a differential element
of the surface.
dF is the force acting on
the differential element.

C is the centroid. General Shape: Planar

View, in the x-y plane
CP is the center of Pressure

FR is the resultant force

acting through CP
Hydrostatic Force on a Plane Surface: General Case
Then the force acting on the differential element:

Then the resultant force acting on the entire surface:

We note h = ysinq

With  and q taken as constant:

We note, the integral part is the first moment of area about the x-axis

Where yc is the y coordinate to the centroid of the object.

hc
 Hydrostatic Force on a Plane Surface: Location
Now, we must find the location of the center of Pressure where the Resultant Force Acts:
“The Moments of the Resultant Force must Equal the Moment of the Distributed Pressure Force”

Moments about the x-axis:

And, note h = ysinq
We note, Second moment of Intertia, Ix

Then,

Parallel Axis Thereom:

Ixc is the second moment of inertia through the centroid

Substituting the parallel Axis thereom, and rearranging:

We, note that for a submerged plane, the resultant force always acts below the centroid of
the plane.
 Hydrostatic Force on a Plane Surface: Geometric Properties

Centroid Coordinates
Areas
Moments of Inertia
 xc

xc

xc

xc

xc

xc

xc

xc
Example:
A heavy car plunges into a lake during an accident and lands
at the bottom of the lake on its wheels as shown in fig. the
door is 1.2 m high and 1 m wide and the top edge of the door
is 8 m below the free surface of the water. Determine the
hydrostatic force on the door and the location of the pressure
center.
Discuss if the driver can open the door??!!
 Pressure Prism: Vertical Wall

Pressure Prism: A graphical interpretation of the forces due to a fluid acting on

a plane area. The “volume” of fluid acting on the wall is the pressure prism and
equals the resultant force acting on the wall.
Resultant Force:

O Volume
FR 
1
hbh
2
FR 
1
hA
2
Location of the Resultant Force, CP:
The location is at the centroid of the volume of the
pressure prism.

Center of Pressure:
 b 2h 
 , 
2 3 
 Pressure Prism: Submerged Vertical Wall

Trapezoidal

The Resultant Force: break into two “volumes” Location of Resultant Force: “use sum of moments”

F1  h1 A Solve for yA

F2   h2  h1 A
1
2 y1 and y2 is the centroid location for the two
A  bh2  h1  volumes where F1 and F2 are the resultant
forces of the volumes.
 Pressure Prism: Inclined Submerged Wall

Now we have an incline trapezoidal volume. The methodology is the

same as the last problem, and we affix the coordinate system to the
plane.
The use of pressure prisms is only convenient if we have regular
geometry, otherwise integration is needed, In that case we use the
more revert to the general theory.
Solve Car example by pressure prism method
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface

• General theory of plane surfaces does not apply to curved surfaces

• Many surfaces in dams, pumps, pipes or tanks are curved
• No simple formulas by integration similar to those for plane surfaces
• A new method must be used
Then we mark a F.B.D. for the volume:

h’

Isolated Volume
Bounded by AB an AC F1 and F2 is the hydrostatic force on
and BC each planar face
FH and FV is the component of the
resultant force on the curved surface.

W is the weight of the fluid volume.

Now, balancing the forces for the Equilibrium condition:

𝜃
Resultant Force:

FR FV

𝜃
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 : Vertical Force (‫ 𝑊 = )ݒܨ‬+ F1 FH
Horizontal Force (‫ = )ܪܨ‬F2
‫ݒܨ‬
𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜃 = ‫ܪܨ‬
𝜃 : is an angle force make with horizontal plane

A: area of curved body h’ h

W FH

FV
Example
A long solid cylinder of radius 0.8 m hinged at point A is
used as an automatic gate, as shown in figure. When the
water level reaches 5 m, the gates open by turning about
the hinge at point A. Determine (a) the hydrostatic force
acting on the cylinder and its line of action and (b) the
weight of cylinder per meter length of the cylinder.