Chapter 3

FLUID STATICS
Shear Forces Normal Forces (pressure)

Fluid Mechanics, Spring Term 2009

where F is a force normal to area A

Pressure is a scalar quantity

Flow of an unconfined viscous fluid down an incline.

Figure 3.1 (p. 31)

Force balance in the x-direction: Flowing viscous fluid exert shear forces. Static fluids only exert normal forces. Moving fluids (dynamics) will be covered later.

From last slide:

Divide through by

to get

Force balance in the z-direction:

Now shrink the element to a point:

Vertical force on "A

Vertical force on lower boundary

Total weight of wedge element = specific weight

This can be done for any orientation !, so

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

(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

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.

p=0

Pressure Transmission

Absolute Pressure, Gage Pressure, and Vacuum

Figure 3.3 (p. 34) Example of pressure relations

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).

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

is perfectly general (applies also to variable #). But if # is constant, the above equation is easy to integrate: or for

The quantity

is known as the piezometric pressure and is called the piezometric head.

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.

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

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

(relative to atmospheric pressure at point 1)

Pressure Measurements

Find pressure at center of pipe: Can start either at open end or inside pipe.

Here we start at open end:

Figure 3.7 (p. 42) Figure 3.6 (p. 41)

U-tube manometer Better for higher pressures. Possible to measure pressure in gases.

Piezometer or simple manometer

p at open end

Change in p from 1 to 2

Change in p from 3 to 4

p in pipe

The complete path from point 1 to point 2 may include several U-tubes. In general:

Differential Manometer

Figure 3.8 (p. 44)

From example 3.9 (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.

The to give

cancel out

(piezometric pressure) (piezometric head)

( from

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

But the first moment of the area is defined as

so that the total force can be written as

or

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:

or, since # and sin ! are constants

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?

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):

2 weights on a beam supported at ycp

The book just refers to the parallel axis theorem to write

Mathematically, I think it is easy to see that using Identifying and as the 2nd moment about y=0 as the 2nd moment about

We have thus proved the parallel-axis theorem:

Notice that the last term is zero because

Back to the problem at hand: As an aside, you may recall that 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.

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

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:

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,

With

(Appendix p. A-5) we get

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): The complete result is summarized below:

Distance from C to centroid is:

So that xcp is found to be