Chapter 3

Pressure
Measurement
 Objectives
• Define the relationship between absolute pressure, gage
pressure, and atmospheric pressure.
• Define the relationship between a change in elevation and
the change in pressure in a fluid.
• Describe several types of manometers and how it is used to
measure pressure.
• Describe a barometer and how it indicates the value of the
local atmospheric pressure.
• Describe various types of pressure gages and pressure
transducers.

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 Pascal’s Paradox
• The change in pressure depends only on the change in
elevation and the type of fluid, not on the shape or size of the
fluid container.

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 Pascal's Law
• A consequence of the pressure in a fluid remaining constant
in the horizontal direction is that the pressure applied to a
confined fluid increases the pressure throughout by the
same amount. This is called Pascal’s law

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 The Manometer
• It was noticed that an elevation change of -Δz in a fluid at
rest corresponds to ΔP/ρg, which suggests that a fluid
column can be used to measure pressure differences.
• A device based on this principle is called a manometer.
• It is commonly used to measure small and moderate pressure
differences.
• A manometer consists of a glass or plastic U-tube containing
one or more fluids such as mercury, water, alcohol, or oil.
• To keep the size of the manometer to a manageable level,
heavy fluids such as mercury are used if large pressure
differences are anticipated.
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 The Manometer
• Below are the procedure for writing the
equation for a manometer:
•Start from one end of the manometer and
express the pressure there in symbol form
(e.g., pA refers to the pressure at point A). If
one end is open, the pressure is atmospheric
pressure, taken to be zero gage pressure.
•Add terms representing changes in pressure
using Δp=γh proceeding from the starting
point and including each column of each
fluid separately.

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 The Manometer
• When the movement from one point to another is downward,
the pressure increases and the value of Δp is added.
Conversely, when the movement from one point to the next is
upward, the pressure decreases and Δp is subtracted.
• Continue this process until the other end point is reached. The
result is an expression for the pressure at that end point.
Equate this expression to the symbol for the pressure at the
final point, giving a complete equation for the manometer

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 The Manometer
• Solve the equation algebraically for the desired pressure at a
given point or the difference in pressure between two points
of interest.
• Enter known data and solve for the desired pressure.

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 Example

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 Example

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 Example
As shown in figure water
flows through pipe A and B.
The pressure difference of
these two points is to be
measured by multiple tube
manometers. Oil with specific
gravity 0.88 is in the upper
portion of inverted U-tube and
mercury (SG = 13.6) in the
bottom of both bends. Answer = - 10.131 kPa
Determine the pressure
difference.

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 Barometer
• Atmospheric pressure is measured by a device called a
barometer; thus, the atmospheric pressure is often referred to
as the barometric pressure.
• 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 (Hg= 13,595 kg/m3) under
standard gravitational acceleration (g = 9.807 m/s2).

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 Barometer

• The length or the cross-sectional area of the tube has no effect on

the height of the fluid column of a barometer, provided that the
tube diameter is large enough to avoid surface tension (capillary)
effects.
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