Engineering Fluid Mechanics
Hydrostatics
LO2: Apply hydrostatic principles to fluid forces,
pressures, stability and buoyancy
Dr. Amirhossein Malakahmad
Civil Engineering Department
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
Unit objectives
At the end of this session you will be able to :
• Determine the variation of pressure in a
fluid at rest.
• Calculate the forces exerted by a fluid at
rest on plane submerged surface.
Pressure
• Pressure is defined as a normal force exerted by a
fluid per unit area.
• Units of pressure are N/m2, which is called a pascal
(Pa).
• Since the unit Pa is too small for pressures
encountered in practice, kilopascal (1 kPa = 103 Pa)
and megapascal (1 MPa = 106 Pa) are commonly
used.
• Other units include bar, atm, kgf/cm2 are used
commonly and are almost equivalent to each other
and equal to 100kPa.
Absolute, Gage, and Vacuum pressures
• Actual pressure at a given point is called the
absolute pressure.
• Most pressure-measuring devices are
calibrated to read zero in the atmosphere,
and therefore indicate gage pressure,
Pgage= Pabs - Patm.
• Pressure below atmospheric pressure are
called vacuum pressure, Pvac= Patm - Pabs.
Absolute, Gage, and Vacuum pressures
Example 1: 3–7 A vacuum gage connected to a chamber
reads 24 kPa at a location where the atmospheric pressure
is 92 kPa. Determine the absolute pressure in the chamber.
Pressure at a Point
• Pressure is the compressive force per
unit area.
• Pressure at any point in a fluid is the
same in all directions.
• Pressure has a magnitude, but not a
specific direction, and thus it is a scalar
quantity.
Variation of Pressure with Depth
• In the presence of a gravitational
field, pressure increases with
depth because more fluid rests
on deeper layers.
• To obtain a relation for the
variation of pressure with depth,
consider rectangular element
• Force balance in z-direction gives
F z maz 0
P2 x P1x g xz 0
• Dividing by Δx and rearranging gives
P P2 P1 g z s z
Variation of Pressure with Depth
• Pressure in a fluid at rest is independent of the
shape of the container.
• Pressure is the same at all points on a horizontal
plane in a given fluid.
Pascal’s Law
• Pressure applied to a
confined fluid increases the
pressure throughout by the
same amount.
• two hydraulic cylinders of
different areas could be
connected, and the larger
could be used to exert a
proportionally greater force
than that applied to the
smaller. F1 F2 F2 A2
P1 P2
• Ratio A2/A1 is called ideal A1 A2 F1 A1
mechanical advantage.
The Manometer
• An elevation change of
h in a fluid at rest equals
to P/g.
• A device based on this is
called a manometer.
• A manometer consists of
a U-tube containing one
or more fluids such as
mercury, water, alcohol,
or oil.
P1 P2 • Heavy fluids such as
mercury are used if large
P2 Patm gh pressure differences are
expectd.
Example 2: A manometer is used to measure
the pressure of gas in a tank. The fluid used
has a specific gravity of 13.6, and the
manometer column height is 35 cm, as shown
in Figure. If the local atmospheric pressure is
100 kPa, determine the absolute and gage
pressure within the tank.
100 kPa
h = 35 cm
SG = 13.6
Mutlifluid Manometer
For multi-fluid systems
• Pressure change across a fluid
column of height h is P = gh.
• Pressure increases downward, and
decreases upward.
• Two points at the same elevation in
a continuous fluid are at the same
pressure.
• Pressure can be determined by
adding and subtracting gh terms.
Patm + ρ1gh1 + ρ2gh2 + ρ3gh3 = P1
Example 3: 3-9 The water in a tank is pressurized
by air, and the pressure is measured by a
multifluid manometer as shown in figure below.
Determine the gage pressure of air in the tank if
h1= 0.2 m, h2 = 0.3 m, and h3= 0.46 m. Take the
densities of water, oil, and mercury to be 1000
kg/m3, 850 kg/m3, and 13,600 kg/m3, respectively.
Measuring Pressure Drops
• Manometers are well-
suited to measure
pressure drops across
valves, pipes, heat
exchangers, etc.
• Relation for pressure
drop P1-P2 is obtained
by starting at point 1 and
adding or subtracting
gh terms until we reach
point 2.
Barometer
• Atmospheric pressure is
measured by a device called a
barometer; thus, atmospheric
pressure is often referred to as
the barometric pressure.
• The pressure at point B is equal
to atmospheric pressure and PC
can be taken to be zero since
there is only mercury vapor
above point C, and it is very low Patm = ρgh
relative to Patm.
A frequently used pressure unit is the standard atmosphere, which is
defined as the pressure produced by a column of mercury 760 mm in height
at 0°C (ρ Hg =13,595 kg/m3) under standard gravitational acceleration
(g = 9.807 m/s2).
Example 4: Your company has
signed an agreement with
Maxcarry Sdn. Bhd. for some
renovation in KL tower. You are
assigned as survey engineer to
measure the height of the tower.
For this task you only have a basic
barometer.
i. Explain how you can complete
this task.
ii. Barometric readings at the top
and bottom of the tower are 718
and 753 mmHg, respectively.
Assume an average air density of
1.13 kg/m3 and mercury density of
13600 kg/m3.
Home work 2: (due date 16.08.2010) Assume that the
fluid in pipe below is a gas, calculate the pressure
difference between point 1 and 2. Assume that the
density of gas to compare to density of fluid is
negligible.
