Pressure in Fluids 195
Construction and principle of operation
A simple barometer consists of a glass tube, just less than
1 m in length, sealed at one end, filled with mercury and
then inverted into a trough containing more mercury. Care
must be taken to ensure that no air enters the tube during this
latter process. Such a barometer is shown in Figure 28.3(a)
and it is seen that the level of the mercury column falls, leav-
ing an empty space, called a vacuum. Atmospheric pressure
acts on the surface of the mercury in the trough as shown
and this pressure is equal to the pressure at the base of the
column of mercury in the inverted tube, i.e. the pressure of
the atmosphere is supporting the column of mercury. If the
atmospheric pressure falls the barometer height h decreases.
Similarly, if the atmospheric pressure rises then h increases.
Thus atmospheric pressure can be measured in terms of the
height of the mercury column. It may be shown that for mer-
cury the height h is 760 mm at standard atmospheric pressure,
i.e. a vertical column of mercury 760 mm high exerts a pres-
sure equal to the standard value of atmospheric pressure.
Vacuum
Atomospheric
pressure
Barometric
hegiht, h
Mercury
Trough
(a)
Atomospheric Vacuum
pressure
h Barometric
Mercury
(b)
Fig. 28.3
There are thus several ways in which atmospheric pressure
can be expressed:
Standard atmospheric pressure
D 101325 Pa or 101.325 kPa
D 101325 N/m2 or 101.325 kN/m2
D 1.01325 bars or 1013.25 mbars
D 760 mm of mercury
Another arrangement of a typical barometer is shown in
Figure 28.3(b) where a U-tube is used instead of an inverted
tube and trough, the principle being similar.
If, instead of mercury, water was used as the liquid in a
barometer, then the barometric height h at standard atmo-
spheric pressure would be 13.6 times more than for mercury,
i.e. about 10.4 m high, which is not very practicable. This is
because the relative density of mercury is 13.6.
Types of barometer
The Fortin barometer is an example of a mercury barom-
eter that enables barometric heights to be measured to a
high degree of accuracy (in the order of one-tenth of a
millimetre or less). Its construction is merely a more sophis-
ticated arrangement of the inverted tube and trough shown in
Figure 28.3(a), with the addition of a vernier scale to measure
the barometric height with great accuracy. A disadvantage of
this type of barometer is that it is not portable.
A Fortin barometer is shown in Figure 28.4. Mercury is
contained in a leather bag at the base of the mercury reservoir,
Main
Vernier scale
scale
height in
millimetres
of mercury
H
Mercury
reservoir
Fig. 28.4
196 Science for Engineering
and height, H, of the mercury in the reservoir can be adjusted
using the screw at the base of the barometer to depress or
release the leather bag. To measure the atmospheric pressure
the screw is adjusted until the pointer at H is just touching
the surface of the mercury and the height of the mercury
column is then read using the main and vernier scales.
The measurement of atmospheric pressure using a Fortin
barometer is achieved much more accurately than by using
a simple barometer.
A portable type often used is the aneroid barometer.
Such a barometer consists basically of a circular, hollow,
sealed vessel, S, usually made from thin flexible metal. The
air pressure in the vessel is reduced to nearly zero before
sealing, so that a change in atmospheric pressure will cause
the shape of the vessel to expand or contract. These small
changes can be magnified by means of a lever and be made
to move a pointer over a calibrated scale. Figure 28.5 shows
a typical arrangement of an aneroid barometer. The scale
is usually circular and calibrated in millimetres of mercury.
These instruments require frequent calibration.
Sealed
vessel S
Scale
Pointer
Pivot
Atmospheric
Pressure
Fig. 28.5
28.7 Absolute and gauge pressure
A barometer measures the true or absolute pressure of the
atmosphere. The term absolute pressure means the pressure
above that of an absolute vacuum (which is zero pressure), as
stated earlier. In Figure 28.6 a pressure scale is shown with
the line AB representing absolute zero pressure (i.e. a vac-
uum) and line CD representing atmospheric pressure. With
most practical pressure-measuring instruments the part of the
instrument that is subjected to the pressure being measured is
also subjected to atmospheric pressure. Thus practical instru-
ments actually determine the difference between the pres-
sure being measured and atmospheric pressure. The pressure
that the instrument is measuring is then termed the gauge
pressure. In Figure 28.6, the line EF represents an absolute
pressure which has a value greater than atmospheric pressure,
i.e. the ‘gauge’ pressure is positive.
E Positive gauge F
pressure
Atmospheric pressure
Pressure C Negative gauge D
scale pressure
Absolute
pressure G H
Absolute
pressure
A Absolute zero pressure B
(complete vacuum)
Fig. 28.6
Thus, absolute pressure
D gauge pressure C atmospheric pressure.
Hence a gauge pressure of, say, 60 kPa recorded on
an indicating instrument when the atmospheric pressure is
101 kPa is equivalent to an absolute pressure of 60 kPa C
101 kPa, or 161 kPa.
Pressure-measuring indicating instruments are referred to
generally as pressure gauges (which acts as a reminder that
they measure ‘gauge’ pressure).
It is possible, of course, for the pressure indicated on a
pressure gauge to be below atmospheric pressure, i.e. the
gauge pressure is negative. Such a gauge pressure is often
referred to as a vacuum, even though it does not necessarily
represent a complete vacuum at absolute zero pressure. Such
a pressure is shown by the line GH in Figure 28.6. An
indicating instrument used for measuring such pressures is
called a vacuum gauge.
A vacuum gauge indication of, say, 0.4 bar means that
the pressure is 0.4 bar less than atmospheric pressure. If
atmospheric pressure is 1 bar, then the absolute pressure is
1 ! 0.4 or 0.6 bar.
28.8 The manometer
A manometer is a device for measuring or comparing fluid
pressures, and is the simplest method of indicating such
pressures.
U-tube manometer
A U-tube manometer consists of a glass tube bent into a
U shape and containing a liquid such as mercury. A U-tube
manometer is shown in Figure 28.7(a). If limb A is connected
to a container of gas whose pressure is above atmospheric,