CIV2263: Hydrostatics

Practice Class 3
Exercise 1
AB is a vertical dock gate 5.5 m wide. Water to a depth
of 7.3 m is on one side (right) and to a depth of 3.0 m on
the other side (left). Find the resultant thrust on the gate
and its line of action.

Solution

The force on the wall due to the water on the left is

F1   hc A  9800 
3
3  5.5  242.5 kN,
2

and acts at 1 m from the floor. The force due to the water on the right is

F2   hc A  9800 
7.3
7.3  5.5  1436.2 kN,
2

and acts at 2.43 m from the floor. The resultant

force is

R  F2  F1  1436.2  242.5  1193.7 kN,

from right to left. The line of action can be found

by considering that the moment generated by the
resultant force with respect to an axis entering
the sheet needs to equal the sum of the moments of the two forces with respect to the same axis
(see figure). Accordingly, with respect to the bottom of the wall, one can write

Ry R  F2  2.43  F1 1
F2  2.43  F1 1 1436.2  2.43  242.5
yR    2.72 m.
R 1193.7

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

Exercise 2
Calculate the minimal vertical force P
that needs to be applied to the centre
of mass of the plane gate (1 m long)
in figure in order to keep it closed.

l= 2 m
a=0.1 m
=45o
=9800 N m-3

Solution
The force, S, of the water on the gate is perpendicular to the gate with magnitude

l  2 2
S   hG A   (a  sin  ) (l  1)  9800  0.1   2  15820 N ,
2  2 2 

where hG is the depth of the vertical distance from the fluid surface to the centroid of the gate.
The centre of pressure of S is in the
point C, so that

I
GC  ,
M

where I is the moment of inertia with

respect to a horizontal axis passing
through the centroid of the gate and M
is the first moment with respect to a
horizontal axis at the level of the water
surface.
Therefore,

l a 
I  1  l 3 12 M  yG A    l
 2 sin  
GC  0.29 m.

To find the force P, we can impose that the moments of P and S with respect to the hinge are
equal, i.e.,

l l  2S  l 
P cos  S   GC   P    GC   28860N .
2 2  l cos  2 

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

Exercise 3
Determine the horizontal and vertical components of the water
thrust on the Tainter gate shown. The gate is 3.0 m long.

Solution
We can solve the problem by choosing the control volume in
the figure. The control volume is balanced by the forces acting on its lateral surfaces and its
weight. Accordingly,

⃗⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗ + ⃗⃗⃗⃗

𝐹𝐻 + 𝑊 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗𝐻 + ⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐹𝑉 + 𝑅 𝑅𝑉 = 0,

where RH and RV are the horizontal and vertical components of the force that the gate exerts
against the control volume. Along the horizontal direction, the balance of the forces (now we
use magnitudes and not vectors) reads
FH  RH  0
RH  FH    hc A  9800  24  3  235.2 kN.
The horizontal force equals the force against a
section corresponding to the projection of the
surface under study to a vertical plane.
Along the vertical direction, one obtains
FV  RV  W  0
RV  FV  W    hc A    V ,
where V is the volume of the control volume,
that can be calculated as the difference between
  41.8 4  4.472  
V   6  4.472  4    62     3  5.77m3 .
  360 2 
Substituting in the previous equation, one obtains
RV  FV  W    hc A    V  9800  4  6  4.472  3  9800  5.77  123.1 kN.

Notice that FV is equivalent to the weight of the coloured area (both light
and dark grey) in the figure. As such, one could choose a control volume
equal to the dark-grey area, assuming that it is filled up with water.
Likewise, the vertical component of the thrust of the water against the
gate can be calculated noticing that the gate displaces an amount of water
equal to the dark-grey area; the force of the water against the gate equals
the weight of the volume of water displaced and it is directed upward.

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

Exercise 4
A vertical, circular gate (1.2 m diameter) is situated with its
centre 3.0 m below the water surface. Find the resultant
thrust and its line of action.

Solution

The force of the water against the gate can be calculated as

 1.22 
F   yc A  9800  3      33.25 kN.
 4 

The force is perpendicular to the gate (from left to right) and, because of symmetry, it is
applied along the centreline of the gate (i.e., x=0).

The position of the force with respect to the water surface is

I xc  1.2 2 4 4
y  yc   3  3.03 m.
3   1.2 2
2
yc A

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

Exercise 5
A cylindrical gate has a diameter D = 1.2 m and a width (i.e.,
length in the direction perpendicular to the page) L=1 m. The gate
is hinged in A, and when the water (kinematic viscosity  = 1.210-
6
m2 s-1 and specific weight  = 9810 N m-3) level upstream reaches
the depth h = 4.5 m the gate opens by turning around A.
With the given data
i. Calculate the horizontal and vertical components of the
thrust of the water against the gate
ii. Calculate the magnitude, direction and line of action of the thrust of the water against
the gate
iii. Calculate the weight of the gate

Solution
The horizontal component of the force of the water
against the gate is equal to a force against the vertical
surface with trace AB (red line in the figure).
Therefore,
 D  D 
FH  pG A  hG A    h   L   24.7 kN.
 4  2 
The vertical component of the force that the water exerts
against the gate is equivalent to the weight of a volume of
water occupying the green space in the figure. Therefore,
D  D   D 2  
FV     h      4  25.7 kN.
2  2   4  

The resultant force is R  FH2  FV2  35.7 kN . Because the gate is circular, the line of action
is through the centre of the gate and acts at an angle, , from the horizontal plane that can be
calculated as
FV
tg    1.041    46.1.
FH
When the gate opens, the moment of the resultant force of the water against the gate with
respect to A needs to balance the moment of the weight of the gate.
Therefore,
D D
W  R sin   W  R sin   25.7 kN.
2 2

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

Exercise 6

Calculate the resulting hydrostatic force and its position

on the structure, whose cross-section is presented below.
The structure consists of a cylinder with a base of 4 m in
diameter (placed at the bottom) and a wall placed on top
of the cylinder at 45o that is 2 m high. The structure is 5
m long (the dimension orthogonal to the cross-section
presented below), while the water depth is 6 m on its left
side and 4 m on its right side.

Solution
We choose the control volume shown in grey below. The forces acting on the control volume
are two horizontal forces due to the pressure on the left and right sides of the volume, two
vertical forces at the bottom of the volume due to the pressure of water at that depth (these are
different because the water depths on the two sides are different), the weight of the grey volume,
and the two forces representing the horizontal and vertical component of the reaction of the
wall against the water. The resultant force that we want to calculate is the opposite of these two
forces (Rh and Rv).

Along the horizontal direction one gets:

Fhl  Fhr  Rh  0
Rh  Fhl  Fhr
Fhl  hG A  9800  3  6  5  882 kN
Fhr  hG A  9800  2  4  5  392 kN
Rh  882  392  490 kN.

Since Rh is positive, the direction we guessed in the figure is correct; therefore, the magnitude
of the horizontal component of the force of the water against the wall is 490 kN and the direction
is from left to right (i.e., opposite of what drawn in the figure). The line of action can be found
by imposing that the moments of the two horizontal forces calculated with respect of the origin
(i.e., x=z=0) equals that of Rh.

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

This leads to

4
Rh z  Fhl  2  Fhr 
3
z  2.53 m.

Along the vertical direction, the force of the wall against the water (Rv) is given by the
difference between the sum of two forces at the bottom of the control volume and the weight
of the control volume. This means

F2  F3  Wg  Rv  0
Rv  F2  F3  Wg
F2  h2 A2
F3  h3 A3 .

As shown below, F2 and F3 are equal to the weights of the volumes of water coloured in light
and dark grey, respectively.

Accordingly, the difference between these two weights and the weight of the control volume
equals Rv. This difference is equal to the weight of the volume represented below, where the

two weights are now upwards because F3+F2 is larger than Wg.

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University

CIV2263: Hydrostatics

The sum of the weight of the cylinder and the prism with triangular base is equivalent to Rv.
Therefore,

  42 22
Rv  Wc  Wt   5    5  615.8  98  713.8 kN
4 2

The direction of the vertical component of the force of the water against the gate is upward (i.e.,
opposite of what drawn in the figures).

The location with respect to the axis going through x=0 can be calculated imposing that the
moment generated by 𝑊𝑡 equals the moment of 𝑅𝑣 (𝑊𝑐 does not generate a moment around
x=0). This leads to

2
𝑅𝑣 |𝑥| = 𝑊𝑡 ∙
3
𝑊𝑡 ∙ 2
|𝑥| = = 0.09 m.
𝑅𝑣 ∙ 3

Therefore, the resultant force against the wall has magnitude 865.8 kN (horizontal component
from left to right and vertical component upward), directed at an angle of 34.5 degrees with
respect to the vertical direction, with line of action passing through the point x=-0.09 m and
z=2.53 m.

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University