ZEIT2500 Thermofluids Semester 1, 2022

Fluids Assignment

Due date: Thursday 21 April 2022

The assignment is to be attempted in groups of three or fewer.

Please submit this cover page, signed by each student in the group, stating your individual
contributions to the assignment.

Please note you are expected work as a group, but should individually understand and be able to
solve each problem, as these are the standard of questions which may be asked in the final exam.
Also note that in Assignment 2 (Thermodynamics), a similar approach will be used but you will also
undertake a short viva where you will be asked questions to confirm that individual understanding.
So it is a good idea to get into that habit now.

Name: Date: Signature:

Contribution of each member:

2022-ZEIT2500-S1-FLUIDS-JY&KT 1
Question 1 (20 marks):

A rectangular container of water of density 𝜌𝜌, open at the top, of width 𝑏𝑏 (into the page) and height ℎ has a
gate hinged at the bottom as shown below. A force 𝐹𝐹 is provided to keep the gate closed, applied at the
midpoint of the gate. For a given maximum value of 𝐹𝐹, derive an expression for the maximum value of ℎ
that can be used with this setup. What if the gate were hinged at the top instead of at the bottom – would this
increase or decrease the maximum value of ℎ, for the same maximum value of 𝐹𝐹? By how much (as a ratio)?
Explain.

Gate

ℎ 𝐹𝐹

Hinge

Question 2 (15 marks):

A dive crew finds a sunken galleon at a water depth of 20m, and they decide to raise one of the cannons,
weighing 2.5 tonnes. They attach a salvage balloon to the cannon and inflate the balloon from their supplies
of compressed air. The balloon is inflated so that the cannon just starts to slowly lift off the sandy bottom. At
this point, the pressure and temperature of the air in the balloon is the same as the surrounding water. The air
in the balloon acts as a perfect gas.

As the balloon and canon slowly rise to the surface, does the speed at which they rise decrease, stay the same,
or increase? Explain using diagrams, and calculations of the state of the air in the balloon if necessary. When
the balloon breaks the surface of the ocean with the cannon hanging below it, how much of it stays submerged?
Explain.

List and justify any assumptions you need to make in answering this question.

Question 3 (25 marks):

The water in a 5 m diameter, 1.5 m high above ground circular swimming pool is to be emptied by
unplugging a 3 cm diameter plug at the bottom of the side of the pool. What is the maximum flow rate of
water out of the plug? At what rate does the pool water height change at the instant the plug is removed?
What is this rate when the water level is at 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 full? Draw a graph of the height vs time, and
explain how you obtained it. Calculate how long the pool will take to completely empty. List and justify any
assumptions you need to make. Use gravity g = 9.81 m/s2.

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Question 4 (25 marks):

In the figure below, an arrangement of pipes is shown, where there is an upward flow of air in the inner pipe
(of radius 2R) and a downward flow in the outer pipes (of radius R). The inner pipe is twice the diameter of
the outer pipes. At the top of the inner pipe, there is a hemispherical mixing chamber of radius 8R, where there
is some entrainment of ambient air into the pipes via the porous surface. The velocity distribution in the inner
𝑟𝑟 2
pipe is given 𝑉𝑉 = 𝐶𝐶 (1 − ), where C is a constant. The velocity distribution in the outer pipes is 𝑉𝑉 =
4𝑅𝑅2
𝑟𝑟 2
4𝐶𝐶 (1 − ). Use ρ as the density of air and g for the gravitational acceleration. Give your answers in terms
𝑅𝑅2
of ρ, C, R and g. Neglect the weight of air, and ignore the forces exerted by the gage pressure in the inlet and
the outlet pipes.

This is a type of fluid pump, typically used to mix two different fluids (although only a single fluid is used
here for simplicity).

(a) Calculate the average velocity in the inner and the outer pipes in terms of C.

(b) Estimate the volume flow rate of air entrained via the hemispherical porous surface. This can be calculated
as the difference of combined volume flow rate in the outer pipes and the volume flow rate in the inner pipe.

(c) Using the entrained volume flow rate in (b), estimate the average velocity of entrainment across the porous
surface of the hemispherical mixing chamber.

(d) Show that the value of the momentum correction factor β = 4/3 for both the inner and the outer pipe flows.

(e) Find the net reaction force experienced by the brackets that hold the piping network in place. Hint: Use the
value of β obtained in (c) and the average velocities in the inner and outer pipes estimated in (a) to calculate
the net reaction force.

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Question 5 (15 marks):

A gate is 1 m wide and 1.2 m tall and hinged at the bottom. On one side the gate holds back a 1-m-deep
body of water. On the other side, a 5-cm diameter water jet hits the gate at a fixed height of 1 m. Assume
that the water jet has uniform velocity distribution. What jet speed V is required to hold the gate vertical?
What will the required speed be if the body of water is lowered to 0.5 m? What will the required speed be if
the water level is lowered to 0.25 m?

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