Chapter 2

Pressure & Fluid Statics

 STATIC FLUIDS
Static fluids

Objectives &
Learning outcomes

Pressure
Pressure
Measurement

Pressure Barometer

Pascal’s Law Piezometer

Variation of Pressure Manometer

in a static fluids (u-tube)

Pressure & Head

OBJECTIVES
- Introduce the concept of pressure
- Prove it has a unique value at any particular elevation
- Show it varies with depth according to the hydrostatic equation
can be expressed in terms of head of fluid

LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Understand the concept of pressure
- Able to derive an equation for variation of pressure
- Solve the simple problems related to hydrostatic
characteristics such as pressure, pressure distributions,
pressure measurements, hydrostatic force on a plane
and curved surface immersed in a liquid
STATIC OF FLUID SYSTEMS
Static of fluid = Fluid in a rest condition
• No shearing occurs
• In equilibrium conditions
• Moment at any point is zero
• All forces exerted between the fluid and solid boundary must
act at right angle to the boundary
PRESSURE
• Pressure is defined as a normal force exerted by a fluid per unit
area.
• Pressure only deal with fluid and gas. The counterpart of pressure
in solids is normal stress.
Pressure  Force
Area over which the force is applied

p F
A
• Units: Newton's per square meter (N/m2) which call a Pascal (Pa).
1 N/m2 = 1 Pa
• Other units commonly used in practice are bar and atm.
1 bar = 105 Pa
1 atm = 101.325 kPa

*English system: 1 atm = 14.696 psi (pound force per square inch)
PASCAL’S LAW (pressure at a point)
• Consider the equilibrium of a small fluid element in the form of
triangular prism below.
Ps
δz
B
A
δs

Px
δy
F
C

θ
E D
δx
Py

• By assuming a fluid is at rest, px will act at right angles to the

plane ABEF, py at right angles to CDEF and ps at right angles to
ABCD.
• Considering the force in x-direction:
Force due to p x  p x  Area ABFE
 p x δyδz

Component of force due to p s :

   p s  Area ABCD  sin θ
δy
  p s δsδz
δs
  p s δyδz

• The element will be in equilibrium if:

p x δyδz   p s δyδz  0
 p x  pz (2.1)
 • Considering the force in y-direction:
Force due to p y  p y  Area CDEF
 p y δxδz

Component of force due to p s :

   p s  Area ABCD  cos θ
δx
  p s δsδz
δs
  p s δxδz

Weight of element  Specific w eight  Volume

1
 - ρg  δxδyδz
2
• The element will be in equilibrium if:
 
p δxδz   p s δxδz
x
  1
   ρg  δxδyδz   0
 2 
 p  p (2.2)
y z
* Since δx, δy and δz are all very small quantities, δxδyδz is negligible in comparison with the other two terms.
• Thus from equation 2.1 and 2.2 :
px  py  p (2.3)
z
• From the equation 2.3 we can conclude that:
“ Pressure at any point is the same in all directions. This known as
Pascal’s Law (Blaise Pascal-France Philosophy, 1632-1662), and
applies to a fluid at rest”
Atmospheric pressure, Gauge pressure and
Absolute pressure.
• Absolute pressure - The actual pressure at a given position. It is measured
relative to absolute vacuum (i.e., absolute zero pressure).

• Gauge pressure - Difference between the absolute pressure and the local
atmospheric pressure. Most pressure-measuring devices are calibrated to read
zero in the atmosphere, and so they indicate the gauge pressure.

• Vacuum pressures and are measured by vacuum gages that indicate the
difference between the atmospheric pressure and the absolute pressure.

Absolute, gage, and vacuum pressures are all positive quantities and are
related to each other by:

P gauge  Pabs  Patm (2.4)

Pvac  Patm  Pabs (2.5)

 Pgauge

Patm

Pvac Pabs

Patm Patm

Pabs

Absolute Pabs=0 Absolute

Vacuum Vacuum

Illustrated of atmospheric pressure, gauge pressure and absolute pressure.

VARIATION OF PRESSURE IN A
STATIC FLUIDS
area, A
p+δp

2
δs

θ
area, A z+δz
1

mg
p z

• The axis of the prism is inclined at right angle θ to the vertical, the
height of 1 above horizontal datum is z and that of 2 is z+δz.
• The force acting on the element are:
i) F1= pA → acting at right angles to the end face at 1 along the axis of
prism.
ii) F2= (p+δp).A → acting at 2 along the axis in the opposite directions.

iii) FB = mg → weight of the element due to gravity

• For equilibrium; ΣF = 0
ie: F1+F2+FB = 0
 pA -  p   p  A  mg  0
-  pA   gA  s cos 
• In differential form:
dp
   g cos  (2.6)
ds
• Taking the (x,y) plane as horizontal:
• If 1-2 parallel with z-axis, i.e θ=00, ds=dz
dp
   g (2.7)
dz
• If 1-2 perpendicular to z-axis, i.e θ=900, ds=dz
dp
 0 (2.8)
dz
• The actual pressure variation with elevation is found by integrating the
above equation.
z2

p     g dz or p 2  p1     g dz (2.9)
z1
PRESSURE AND HEAD patm

- In a fluid of constant density; Liquid with

density ρ
h
dp
 g p
dz
- Integrate immediately to give;
p    gz  constant (2.10)

- The pressure ‘p’ at any depth ‘z’ measured downwards from the
free surface so that;
z   h i.e, p   gh  constant
- Since the pressure at the free surface will normally be
atmospheric pressure, patm ;
p   gh  p atm (2.11)
PRESSURE AT LAYERED FLUID
The pressure at the bottom of the tank in Fig. 3–13 can be
determined by starting at the free surface where the pressure is
Patm, moving downward until we reach point 1 at the bottom, and
setting the result equal to P1. It gives

Patm + ρ1gh1 +ρ 2gh2+ ρ 3gh3 = P1

PRESSURE MEASUREMENT
• Barometer
- Use to measure atmospheric pressure, thus the atmospheric pressure
referred to as the barometric pressure.
- Pressure at point B is equal to the atmospheric pressure.
- Pressure at point C can be taken to be zero (only mercury vapor above the
point C and the pressure is very low relative to patm).

p atm   gh (2.12) C

h A W=ρghA h
Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647)
prove that the atmospheric pressure
can be measured by inverting a B
mercury-filled tube into a mercury
container that is open to the
atmosphere. mercury patm
Example 1
Determine the atmospheric pressure at a location
where the barometric reading is 740 mm Hg and the
gravitational acceleration is g = 9.81 m/s2. Assume
the temperature of mercury to be 10°C, at which its
density is 13,570 kg/m3.

Example 2
A mountain lake has an average temperature of 10 °C
and a maximum depth of 40 m. For a barometric
pressure of 598 mm Hg, determine the absolute
pressure (in pascals) at the deepest part of the lake.
• Piezometer
- The simplest manometer.
- Consist of tube that open at top which is attached to the vessel containing
liquid at a pressure (higher than atmospheric pressure) to be measured.
- As the tube is open at atmosphere, the pressure measured is relative to
atmospheric so is gauge pressure.
- Pressure at point A

p A   g h  r  (2.13) h

A r
• U-tube Manometer
- U-tube manometer enables to measure pressure for both liquids and gases
with the same instrument.
- The U-tube is connected as in figure and filled with a fluid called
manometric fluid.
- The fluid whose pressure is being measured should have a mass density
less than that of the manometric fluid and the two fluids should not be able
to mix readily.

D
- For the left hand arm:
p B  p A   gh 1 A

- For the right hand arm: fluid density, ρ

h2
p C  p D   m gh 2 h1
- Pressure are same at same level, i.e:
p B  pC
B C
- Pressure at point A:
manometric fluid
p A   m gh 2   gh 1 (2.14) density, ρm

*As we measuring gauge pressure we can subtract patm (pD)

Example 3

A manometer is used to measure the pressure in a tank. The

fluid used has a specific gravity 0.85, and the manometer
column height is 55 cm, as shown in Fig. 3–12. If the local
atmospheric pressure is 96 kPa, determine the absolute
pressure within the tank.
Example 4

A closed tank contains compressed air and oil (SGoil = 0.90) as is

shown in Fig. E2.4. A U-tube manometer using mercury (SGoil = 13.6)
is connected to the tank as shown. For column heights h1 = 36 in.,
and h2 = 6 in, and h3 = 9 in, determine the pressure reading (in psi)
of the gage.
• U-tube Manometer (measurement of pressure difference)
- If the U-tube is connected to a pressurized vessel at two points, the
pressure difference between these two points can be measured.

- For the manometer that arranged as in figure:

p B  pC
- For the left hand arm:
p B  p A   1 gh 1 E
h3
- For the right hand arm:
p C  p E   2 gh 2   3 gh 3
D
ρ3

- Since PB=PC;
ρ1 h2
p A   1 gh 1  p E   2 gh 2   3 gh 3

- Pressure difference between these two A

points (point A and point E) in the vessel is: B
h1
C

ρ2
p A  p E   2 gh 2   3 gh 3   1 gh 1 (2.15)
Example 5

The water in a tank is pressurized by air, and the pressure is

measured by a multifluid manometer as shown in Fig. 2.10. The
tank is located on a mountain at an altitude of 1400 m where
the atmospheric pressure is 85.6 kPa. Determine the air
pressure in the tank if h1 = 0.1 m, h2 = 0.2 m, and h3 = 0.35 m.
Take the densities of water, oil, and mercury to be 1000 kg/m3,
850 kg/m3, and 13,600 kg/m3, respectively
Example 6
• Choice of Manometer
 Care must be taken when attaching the manometer to vessel. No burrs must be
present around this joint. Burrs will alter the flow causing local pressure variations
to affect the measurement.
 Some disadvantages of Manometers:
 Slow response-only really useful for very slowly varying pressure.
 For U-tube manometer, two measurements must be taken simultaneously to
get h value.
 For very accurate work the temperature and relationship between temperature
and density must be known.
 Some advantages of Manometers:
 Very simple
 No calibration is required.
 PRESSURE MEASURING DEVICES

Bourdon pressure gages

Pressure transducers
TUTORIAL