Chapter 3

FLUID STATICS

Fluid Mechanics, Spring Term 2009

Shear Forces Normal Forces
(pressure)

where F is a force normal to area A

 Flow of an
unconfined viscous
fluid down an
incline.

• Flowing viscous fluid exert shear forces.

• Static fluids only exert normal forces.
• Moving fluids (dynamics) will be covered later.
 Pressure is a scalar quantity

Figure 3.1 (p. 31)

Force balance in the x-direction:

 Force balance in the z-direction:

Vertical force Vertical force Total weight of wedge

on DA on lower element
boundary = specific weight
From last slide:

Divide through by to get

Now shrink the element to a point:

This can be done for any orientation a, so

“For your Culture” (i.e., not required for this course…)

It is possible to have different normal stresses.

Consider a small cubic fluid element that is part of a
larger fluid mass:
Different normal forces in one (coordinate) orientation
are equal to shear forces in another orientation.
(cont’d:)

So what is the pressure then?

• Pressure is the average of the normal forces acting

at a point.
• Differences between normal forces are due to fluid
motion.

In this case, if the force vectors are

equal in magnitude, then

p=0
 Pressure Transmission

Hydraulic Lift
Figure 3.2 (p. 32)

In a closed system, pressure changes from one point

are transmitted throughout the entire system
(Pascal’s Law).
Absolute Pressure, Gage Pressure, and Vacuum

Figure 3.3 (p. 34)

Example of
pressure relations

• Pressure in a vacuum is p = 0.
• Absolute pressure is referenced to perfect vacuum.
• Gage pressure is referenced to another pressure,
typically atmospheric pressure (most gages measure
relative pressures).
 Pressure Variation with Elevation
Static fluid:
All forces must
balance as there are
no accelerations.

Look at force balance

in direction of D l

Figure 3.4 (p. 35)

From figure, note that

Shrink cylinder to
zero length:

(from previous slide)

or
 Pressure Variation for a Uniform-Density Fluid

The pressure-elevation relation derived on the previous slide,

is perfectly general (applies also to variable g).

But if g is constant, the above equation is easy to integrate:

The quantity is known as the piezometric pressure and

is called the piezometric head.

For an incompressible fluid, g is constant.
Pressure and elevation at one point can thus be related
to pressure and elevation at another point:

for
or
Example 3.3: What is the water pressure at a depth of 35 ft?

With the information given,

all we can calculate is the
pressure difference between
points 1 and 2.

(Do yourself a favor and work in SI-units!)

Example 3.4: What is the gage pressure at point 3 ?
Two step solution:
1) Calculate
2) Calculate

(relative to atmospheric pressure at point 1)

 Pressure Measurements

Figure 3.7 (p. 42)

Figure 3.6 (p. 41) U-tube manometer
Piezometer or
simple manometer Better for higher pressures.
Possible to measure pressure
in gases.
Find pressure at center of pipe:

Can start either at open end

or inside pipe.

Here we start at open end:

p at Change Change p in
open in p from in p from pipe
end 1 to 2 3 to 4
The complete path from
point 1 to point 2 may
include several U-tubes.

In general:

From example 3.9 (p. 44)

 Differential Manometer

Figure 3.8 (p. 44)

Used for measuring pressure differences between

points along a pipe.
Example 3.10: Find the change in piezometric pressure
and in piezometric head between points 1 and 2.

( from )
The cancel out
to give

(piezometric pressure)

(piezometric head)
 Hydrostatic Forces on Plane Surfaces

The white area AB

in the figure is a
plane of irregular
shape.
Line A-B is an edge
view of that area.

What is the net force

due to pressure
acting on the sloping
plane AB?

First, note that hydrostatic pressure increases along y as

(since y is not vertical)
This figure is absolutely
awful

Line AB represents the

true location of the
surface.

The white surface is not

drawn in its actual
location.

Line 0-0 is horizontal; the white area has been rotated about
axis A-B from its proper location. In other words, the apparent
depth of the white area within the fluid is not as it appears.
From the definition of pressure:
or

so that the total force on a plane area A is

or

or, since g and sin a are constants

But the first moment of the area is defined as

so that the total force can be written as

where is the pressure at the centroid of the area.

The boxed equation is known as the hydrostatic force
equation.
We have thus replaced an integral involving a variable
pressure by a constant resultant pressure:
 Vertical Location of Line of Action of Resultant
Hydrostatic Force

In English: We wish to represent the distributed pressure

force by an equivalent point force. Where (in the vertical)
does that force act?

2 weights on a beam
supported at ycp
So, for the moment about a point at ycp we have

But with and we get

The integral on the right-hand side is the second

moment of the area (about point y=0):
The book just refers to the “parallel axis theorem” to write

Mathematically, I think it is easy to see that using

Notice that the last term is zero because

Identifying as the 2nd moment about y=0

and as the 2nd moment about

We have thus proved the parallel-axis theorem:

As an aside, you may recall that

The moment of inertia of an object

about an axis through its center of
mass Icm is the minimum moment
about any axis in that direction.

The moment about any other

parallel axis is equal to Icm plus the
moment of inertia about distance d
of the entire object treated as a
point mass located at the center of
mass.
Our system of pressures has nothing to do with rotations, but
the equations are of the same form…
Back to the problem at hand:

Recall from a few slides ago that

so that

or

or

Note that at great depth , the difference between

the centroid and the center of mass gets very small.
 Example 3.12:

Find the normal force

required to open the
elliptical gate if it is
hinged at the top.

First find Ftotal, the total

hydrostatic force acting
on the plate:

With (Appendix p. A-5) we get

Now calculate the slant distance between and

The slant distance to the hinge is 8m x 5m/4m = 10m, and the

slant distance from the hinge to the centroid is 2.5m. Hence,

The two moments about the hinge must add to zero:

 Hydrostatic Forces on Curved Surfaces

We could integrate the vector forces along segment AB, but it

is often easier to find equivalent forces on a free body as
illustrated above.
FAC acts at the center of pressure as from previous section,
FCB acts at centroid of area CB, and W acts at the center of
mass of the free body ABC.
 Example 3.14:

Find magnitude and line of

action of equivalent force F.

Force balance in x and y:

The line of action of the horizontal force is

Where we just read directly off the figure.

The line of action for the vertical force can be found by

summing the moments about C (or any other point…)

(notice that we could add a constant to every x-coordinate

since )
 From Appendix p. A-5 (Figure A.1):

Distance from C to centroid is:

So that xcp is found to be

The complete result is summarized below: