12/9/2018 Gradeup Play

Forces on Submerged bodies - Study Notes on Submerged Bodies EXIT

Day 2 | Fluid Statics | Study Notes of Fluid Statics

Fluid Mechanics is high scoring subject in all Mechanical Engineering exams such as GATE, ESE, ISRO
and other PSU exams.After going through Manometry and Buoyancy chapter. Forces on Submerged
Surfaces in a static uid is also an important section. It deals with Horizontal, vertical and curved
surfaces submered under uid and the various forces applied on these section. Some easy , which
other tricky questions are expected from this section.

Forces on Submerged Surfaces in Static Fluids

Pressures at any equal depths in a continuous uid are equal
Pressure at a point acts equally in all directions (Pascal’s law).
Forces from a uid on a boundary acts at right angles to that boundary.

General Submerged Plane

The total or resultant force, R, on the plane is the sum of the forces on the small elements i.e. 

and the resultant force will act through

the centre of pressure.

Note: For a plane surface all forces acting can be represented by one single resultant force, acting at
right-angles to the plane through the centre of pressure.

Horizontal Submerged plane

The pressure, p, will be equal to all points of the surface.

The resultant force will be given by R =  pressure area of plane = pA 

Curved Submerged Surface

Each elemental force is a different magnitude and in a different direction (but still normal to the
surface.).
It is, in general, not easy to calculate the resultant force for a curved surface by combining all
elemental forces.
The sum of all the forces on each element willalwaysbe less than the sum of the individual
forces, ∑pA

Resultant Force and Centre of Pressure on a general plane surface in a liquid

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Take pressure as zero at the surface.

Measuring down from the surface, the pressure on an element ∂A, depth z, p = ρgz
So force on element F = ρgz∂A
Resultant force on plane

R=ρg∑z∂A 

∑z∂A is known as the1st Moment of Area of the plane PQ about the free surface.

And it is known that

 A is the area of the plane,z is the distance to the centre of gravity (centroid).
In terms of distance from point O, ∑z∂A= AxsinΘ (= 1st moment of area about a line through O x
sinΘ)
The moment of R will be equal to the sum of the moments of the forces on all the elements G A
about the same point.

It is convenient to take moment about O.

The force on each elemental area:

The moment of this force is: 

 
ρ,g and Θ are the same for each element, giving the total moment as 

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The position of the centre of pressure along the plane measure from the point O is: 

The position of the centre of pressure along the plane measure from the point O is:
Sc = 2nd Moment of area about a line through O/1st Moment of area about a line through
O
Depth to the centre of pressure =Sc sinθ

2nd moment of area is a geometric property, about a line through the centroid of some common
shapes is given below:

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Submerged vertical surface 
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Pressure diagram Method 

For vertical walls of constant width it is possible to nd the resultant force and centre of
pressure graphically using a pressure diagram.
We know the relationship between pressure and depth:p =ρgz
So we can draw the diagram below:

This is known as a pressure diagram.

Pressure increases from zero at the surface linearly by p = ρgz, to a maximum at the base of p =
ρgH. 
The area of this triangle represents the resultant force per unit width on the vertical wall

Resultant force per unit width : R= 1/2 ρgH2

Note: For a triangle the centroid is at 2/3 its height  i.e. the resultant force acts horizontally through
the point z= 2/3 H

Checking against Moment method

The resultant force is given by: 

and the depth to the centre of pressure by: 

and by the parallel axis theorem (with width of 1) 

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Depth to the centre of pressure 

Submerged Curved Surface

If the surface is curved the resultant force must be found by combining the elemental forces
using some vectorial method.
Calculate the horizontal and vertical components and combine these to obtain the resultant
force and direction.

Consider the Horizontal forces

The sum of the horizontal forces is zero. 

The resultant horizontal force of a uid above a curved surface is:
RH = Resultant force on the projection of the curved surface onto a vertical plane
RH acts horizontally through the centre of pressure of the projection of the curved surface
onto a vertical plane.
Consider the Vertical forces 

The sum of the vertical forces is zero. 

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There are no shear force on the vertical edges, so the vertical component can only be due to the
weight of the uid.
The resultant vertical force of a uid above a curved surface is:

RV = Weight of uid directly above the curved surface.

Resultant force

The overall resultant force is found by combining the vertical and horizontal components
vectorially:

Resultant force= R=√(R2H + R2V)

And acts through O at an angle of θ.

The angle the resultant force makes to the horizontal is θ= 

The position of O is the point of interaction of the horizontal line of action of RH and the vertical
line of action of RV.

The Forces on the Fluid is below the curved surface

This situation may occur or a curved sluice gate, which is similar to above procedure.

Horizontal force

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The two horizontal on the element are:

The horizontal reaction force RH The force on the vertical plane A’B.
The resultant horizontal force, RH acts as shown in the diagram.

Note: The resultant horizontal force of a uid below a curved surface is

RH = Resultant force on the projection of the curved surface onto a vertical plane

 Vertical force

If the region above the curve were all water there would be equilibrium.
The force exerted by this amount of uid must equal he resultant force
The resultant vertical force of a uid below a curved surface is:

Rv=Weight of the imaginary volume of uid vertically above the curved surface

Resultant Force

R=√R2H + R2V

And acts through O at an angle of θ.

The angle the resultant force makes to the horizontal is θ= 

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