1.

ABSTRACT

The basis of this experiment is to determine the magnitude of hydrostatic pressure

and the center of pressure of both fully and partially submerged plane surfaces using
hydrostatic pressure demonstration apparatus. The force of the pressure that is
equally distributed on the plane has a resultant that is exerted on a point which is the
central pressure of the plane. The force that is acted on the plane surface is
influenced by the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid. Besides, based on the experiment,
the moment of the quadrant’s weight is balanced by the moment of the hydrostatic
pressure that is acting on the plane when water is added. The depth of the water
should reach until an equilibrium condition between the moments acting on the
balance arm of the test apparatus and the height was recorded which will be used to
calculate the center of pressure and magnitude hydrostatic force on the vertical
rectangular quadrant. Since the fluid is in static motion, an analysis has been made to
determine the center pressure theoretically and experimentally which is then
compared to find the percentage of the error to determine the reliability of the data
collected from the experiment.

2. TITLE

Hydrostatic Forces

3. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to find the magnitude of hydrostatic forces and their center of
pressure for fully and partially submerged plane surfaces using the Hydrostatic Pressure
Demonstration Apparatus. Hydrostatic forces are the resultant force caused by the pressure
loading of a liquid acting on submerged surfaces. Calculating the hydrostatic force and the
location of the center of pressure are fundamental subjects in fluid mechanics. The center of
pressure is a point on the immersed surface at which the resultant hydrostatic pressure force acts.

4. OBJECTIVES

a) To find the magnitude of hydrostatic force

b) To find the center of pressure for fully and partially submerged plane surfaces
c) To compare the theoretical and experimental value of the center of pressure

5. LIST OF NOMENCLATURE

F = Hydrostatic force acting on the plane surface (N)

𝑝 = Density of fluid (kg/m^3)

g = gravitational acceleration (m/s^2)

 D = height of the lower surface (m)

B= width of the lower surface (m)

d = depth of surface where pressure is applied (m)

L = length of the arm from weights to pivot (m)

H = height of water in the chamber (m)

6. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this experiment, when the quadrant is immersed by adding water to the tank, the hydrostatic
force applied to the vertical surface of the quadrant can be determined by considering the
following

The hydrostatic force at any point on the curved surfaces is normal to the surface and resolves
through the pivot point because it is located at the origin of the radii. Hydrostatic forces on the
upper and lower curved surfaces, therefore, have no net effect – no torque to affect the
equilibrium of the assembly because the forces pass through the pivot.

The forces on the sides of the quadrant are horizontal and cancel each other out (equal and
opposite).

The balance weight counteracts the hydrostatic force on the vertical submerged face. The
resultant hydrostatic force on the face can, therefore, be calculated from the value of the balance
weight and the depth of the water.

The system is in equilibrium if the moments generated about the pivot points by the hydrostatic
force and added weight are equal.

Figure 1: Partially submerged reference diagram

ii) Fully Submerged Surface

𝑚𝑙
y = 𝐷
𝑝𝐵𝐷(𝑑− 2 )

7. EQUIPMENT/APPARATUS

1. Hydraulics bench
2. Set of weights
3. Hydrostatic Pressure Apparatus: level indicator, balance arm, clamping screw,
knife edge pivot, counterbalance, scale, drain valve, quadrant, adjustable feet,
spirit level and weight hang
4. Ruler
5. Measuring Cylinder
6. Pail

8. PROCEDURE

1. The quadrant is wiped with a towel to make sure it is dust free and remove surface
tension to prevent air bubbles from coming.

2. The apparatus is placed on a flat surface and the screwed-in feet is adjusted until the
built-in circular spirit level indicates a horizontal base. The bubble should appear in
the center of the spirit level.

3. The lengths are measured which are the height and width of the quadrant, length
from pivot point to quadrant, and length from pivot point to groove.

4. A hose is connected from the drainage cock to a pail and the drainage cock is closed.

5. The quadrant is placed inside the tank while the weight hanger is hung.

6. The counterbalance is adjusted by ensuring the balance arm is at the

middle of the level indicator.

7. A weight of 50g was added to the weight hanger and the water is poured
slowly until the balance arm is back at the middle of the level indicator. The
depth of immersion, d is recorded.

8. The above procedure is repeated by adding the weights until used all 500g which
was a total of 10 weights.

9. After that, the weights were removed one by one by doing a reverse procedure
 and water is drained using the drainage cock until all weights had been removed.

10. The weight and depth of immersion, d is recorded as the second result
 Figure 7: Hydrostatic Pressure apparatus

9. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

9.1 Results

The height of the end face of the quadrant, D = 0.100 m

The width of the end face of the quadrant, B = 0.075 m

The distance between the base to the knife edge pivot, H = 0.200 m

The length of the balance arm from pivot to groove, L = 0.275 m

Density of water, 𝜌 = 1000 𝑘𝑔𝑚−3

Gravitational acceleration, g = 9.81 𝑚𝑠

Table 1: Partially Submerged

Load Weight, W (N) Depth of Immersion, d (m)

Filling Tank Draining Tank Average
0.491 0.045 0.045 0.045
0.981 0.064 0.064 0.064
1.472 0.080 0.080 0.080
1.962 0.093 0.093 0.093
 Table 2: Fully Submerged

Load Weight, W (N) Depth of Immersion, d (m)

Filling Tank Draining Tank Average
2.453 0.106 0.106 0.106
2.943 0.118 0.118 0.118
3.434 0.130 0.130 0.130
3.924 0.142 0.142 0.142
4.415 0.154 0.154 0.154
4.905 0.167 0.167 0.167

Table 3: Final Report Results

Depth of Immersion, d (m) Theoretica Experimental

Load Hydrostatic l Depth of Depth of Percentag
Weight, Force, F Centre of Centre of e
W (N) Filling Draining Average (N) Pressure, y Pressure, y Difference
Tank Tank (m) (m) (%)

0.491 0.045 0.045 0.045 0.745 0.185 0.181 2.162

0.981 0.064 0.064 0.064 1.507 0.179 0.179 0.000
1.472 0.080 0.080 0.080 2.354 0.173 0.172 0.578
1.962 0.093 0.093 0.093 3.182 0.169 0.170 0.592
2.453 0.106 0.106 0.106 4.120 0.165 0.164 0.606
2.943 0.118 0.118 0.118 5.003 0.162 0.162 0.000
3.434 0.130 0.130 0.130 5.886 0.160 0.160 0.000
3.924 0.142 0.142 0.142 6.769 0.159 0.159 0.000
4.415 0.154 0.154 0.154 7.652 0.158 0.159 0.633
4.905 0.167 0.167 0.167 8.608 0.157 0.157 0.000
9.1 Discussion

● Based on graph 1, it can be seen that hydrostatic pressure increases as depth of immersion
increase. Thus, this shows that hydrostatic pressure is directly proportional to depth of immersion.
● Based on graph 2 and 3, it shows that when depth of immersion increases the depth of centre of
pressure decrease. The location of centre of pressure is measured by making the pivot as my
reference point thus the location of centre of pressure is the distance from the pivot to the centre
of pressure at the submerged area of the quadrant end face. The location of centre of pressure
decreasing is due to the distance between the centroid and the centre of pressure is decreasing,
this means that as the depth of water increases, the location centre of pressure is nearing to the
centroid.
● Based on graph 4, the theoretical depth of centre of pressure is inversely proportional to the
experimental depth of centre of pressure
● Based on graph 5, when log mass increases the log depth of immersion also increases
● Based on the percentage of difference calculated in table 3, it can be said that the experimental
values are mostly same with the theoretical values whereas there are some fluctuations in the
experimental values when compared to theoretical values. These fluctuation of values goes about
2% maximum with the rest below 1% of error. This is because of some errors are done during the
experiment such as :

i. Parallax error which is due to the error when taking the reading of the height of the water
level, supposedly the eyes of the observer should be perpendicular with the measurement.
ii. Parallax error also occurs during the experiment when balancing the balance arm to make
it horizontal so that it will align with its initial point.
iii. Besides that, the water used in this experiment was tap water. Hence, the density of the
water is not equal to 1000 kg/m^3 since it contains a lot of impurities.
 iv. The movement of the wind also influenced the result of the experiment.

● Hence, there are some precautions that can be taken into account to reduce some of the error.

i. One of the errors is parallax error. To reduce this error, the eye of the observer should be
perpendicular to the measurement to obtain an accurate reading.
ii. Besides that, we should ensure that the balance pan is not moving when taking the
reading of the measurement.
iii. We should use distilled water when conducting the experiment so that the density of the
fluid is 1000 kg/m3. Besides that, distilled water also does not contain any impurities that
could influence the experiment results.
iv. The experiment should be done in a lab that is inert so that there will be no wind factor
that could affect the experiment.

● Centre of pressure is the summation of a pressure prism that exerted on the surface of the plane
and causes a force to exert on a single point. The resultant force and the centre of pressure
location will produce a moment that is equivalent to the original pressure prism. If we increase
the depth of the submerged plane surface, the pressure prism and also the hydrostatic force will be
larger at the bottom due to the pressure at the bottom is higher than at the top. We know that
pressure depends on the depth of water. If we were to split the pressure prism at the centroid, the
upper part of the pressure prism will have a summation of pressure that is lesser than the bottom
part of the pressure prism, due to the difference in the depth. For Figure 7: Pressure prism onto a
submerged surface 18 horizontal surface as I mentioned before, the pressure prism is uniform
across the surface due to the constant depth throughout the surface thus we can say the pressure is
constant. If we were to calculate the resultant pressure between the upper and bottom part of the
pressure prism, it will not equal zero. If we were to split the pressure prism at a higher point than
the centroid, it will still not be equal to zero as the bottom part now has a larger summation of
pressure than the upper part. So, the only option is to split the pressure prism at a lower point than
the centroid which both sides of the pressure prism will have equal pressure and the resultant
pressure or hydrostatic force will be zero. At that distance from the centroid, which is lower than
the centroid, the resultant force of all the forces that acted on the surface will act on a single point
through its point of application. In other words, this is also known as the centre of pressure.

10. CONCLUSION
At the end of this experiment, the objectives are completed which is the hydrostatic forces on both full
and partially submerged surface due to water acting on it are determined. Next, the depth of the centre of
pressure on a submerged plane surface fully and partially is determined. Other than that, the percentage of
error was also determined by comparing the experimental and theoretical values for the centre of pressure.
The data obtained from the pressure system supported the relationship between variables to calculate the
hydrostatics force and centre of pressure. The hydrostatic forces acting on both full and partial surface
plane increases as the height of fluid or depth of immersion increases too. The centre of pressure is the
point where the sum of pressure acts on it, which causes a force to act on it. The resultant force, R and the
centre of pressure produce a moment on the quadrant which is opposed by the hanged weight. Based on
the data, we can sum that the centre of pressure decreases towards the centroid when the depth immersion
increases which happens in both partially and fully submerged. The percentage of error is not very
significant as its maximum value is 2% which is due to some parallax and natural errors made during the
experiment.
 11. REFERENCES

Books:
1) Çengel, Y. A., & Cimbala, J. M. (2014). In Fluid mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications (3rd
ed.,pp. 38-59). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Internet Sources:
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https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/lab-report/

2) Hydrostatic pressure lab - Rachel E. Helm, eit. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2022, from
https://rachelehelm.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/4/3/38433197/hydrostatic_pressure_lab.pdf

3) Houghton Mifflin Company (2005) Hydrostatic pressure. October 2012,

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hydrostatic+pressure

4) Kassegne, D. S. (n.d.). Retrieved from Professor Sam Kassegne, SDSU Mechanical Engineering:
http://www.digitaladdis.com/sk/ME495_HydrostaticForce.pdf

12. Acknowledgment

This study was conducted in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering,
University Malaya. The assistance of Sir Muhammad Farhan in experimental equations and expertise in
data analysis is gratefully acknowledged.