Pressure Prism

• The resultant force must pass through the centroid

of the pressure prism. For the volume under
consideration the centroid is located along the
vertical axis of symmetry of the surface, and at a
distance of h/3 above the base
(since the centroid of a triangle is
located at h/3 above its base).
 Pressure Prism
• For inclined surfaces, the prisms can still be
constructed but complex arrangement!!
• In this case it is more convenient to use the
relations involving ‘𝜃’ developed earlier
 Pressure Prism
• Effect of atmospheric pressure can be treated by
Pressure Prism approach as shown below
• The atmospheric pressure acting on the surface on
both sides produce an equal and opposite force,
which cancels out
 Pressure Prism
• However, if the surface pressure of the liquid is
different from atmospheric pressure (which might
occur in a closed tank), the resultant force will be
changed in magnitude by an amount PsA, where Ps
is the gage pressure at liquid surface
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• Equations developed so far are for flat surfaces
• Many situations involve curved surfaces (dams,
pipes etc)
• FR can be determined by integrating over curved
surface but the process becomes tedious and no
simple general formula can be developed
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• Alternate approach : we will consider the
equilibrium of fluid volume enclosed by the curve
surface of interest and the horizontal and vertical
projections of this surface
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• For the given figure, we will find FR acting on curved
surface BC of the open tank
• We will bound the curved surface of interest as
shown
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• Consider the free body diagram
• The magnitude & location of F1 & F2 can be
determined from the relationships for planar
surfaces
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• Consider the free body diagram
• Weight acts thru the Center of Gravity (CG) of the
mass of fluid contained within the volume
• FH & FV are the reactionary forces of the tank on the
fluid
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• In a concurrent force system, for equilibrium, all
forces pass thru a common point i.e. σ 𝑀𝑜 = 0,
otherwise the body will rotate because of
unbalanced moment
 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• Also, for this volume to be in equilibrium,
෍ 𝐹𝑥 = 0 𝑖. 𝑒. 𝐹𝐻 = 𝐹2

෍ 𝐹𝑦 = 0 𝑖. 𝑒. 𝐹𝑉 = 𝐹1 + 𝑊

Then 𝐹𝑅 = (𝐹𝐻)2 +(𝐹𝑉)2

 Hydrostatic Force on a Curved Surface
• FR passes thru point ‘O’, which can be located by
summing moments about appropriate axis
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
Archimedes' Principle
• A body submerged (completely or partially) in a
fluid experiences a ‘buoyancy’ force that is equal in
magnitude to the weight of the fluid ‘displaced’ by
the body and is directly vertically up (opposite to
gravity)
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• This net upward force results because pressure
increases with depth and pressure forces acting
from below are larger from the forces acting from
above
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Consider a body of arbitrary shape, having volume
V immersed in a fluid
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Consider a body of arbitrary shape, having volume
V immersed in a fluid
• We enclose the body in a parallelepiped and draw a
free body diagram with the body removed
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Forces F1, F2, F3 & F4 are the forces exerted on the
plane surfaces of the parallelepiped
• W is the weight of the shaded fluid volume
(parallelepiped minus body)
• FB is the force the body is exerting on the fluid
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Forces F3 & F4 are equal and cancel
• So equilibrium equation in z-direction implies
𝐹𝐵 = 𝐹2 − 𝐹1 − 𝑊
• For constant sp. Weight of the fluid
𝐹2 − 𝐹1 = 𝛾 ℎ2 − ℎ1 𝐴
And
𝑊 = 𝛾[ ℎ2 − ℎ1 𝐴 − 𝑉]
Where W is the weight of the
shaded fluid volume
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Substituting we get
𝐹𝐵 = 𝛾 ℎ2 − ℎ1 𝐴 − 𝛾[ ℎ2 − ℎ1 𝐴 − 𝑉]
𝐹𝐵 = 𝛾𝑉
where 𝛾 is the sp. weight of fluid and V is the volume
of the body (or volume of the fluid displaced by body)
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
𝐹𝐵 = 𝛾𝑉
• Hence buoyancy force has a magnitude equal to
weight of fluid displaced by the body and is directed
vertically up
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Location of the line of action of FB can be
determined by summing moments of forces about
some convenient point
• Summing moments about an axis perpendicular to
the paper thru point D
FB YC – F2 y1 + F1 y1 + W y2 = 0
g V YC = g h2A y1 - g h1 A y1 –g [(h2 – h1) A – V] y2
V YC = h2A y1 – h1 A y1 – h2A y2+ h1A y2 + Vy2
V YC = (h2 – h1 )A y1 –(h2– h1)A y2 +Vy2
or V YC = VT y1 – (VT –V) y2
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
V YC = VT y1 – (VT –V) y2
Where VT is the total volume (h2-h1)A
• Further analysis reveals that yc is equal to the
y-coordinate of the centroid of volume V, similarly
xc coincides with the x-coordinate of centroid
 Buoyancy, Flotation & Stability
• Thus we conclude that Buoyant Force passes thru
centroid of the displaced volume
• The point thru which FB acts is called ‘Center of
Buoyancy’