COMPILATION OF SOLVED PROBLEMS

IN FLUID MECHANICS
BES 049
FIRST SEMESTER, AY 2023-2024

A. Properties of Fluids
1. A reservoir of glycerin has a mass of 1,200 kg and a volume of 0.952 cu. meters.
Find its (a) weight, W, (b) unit weight, ϒ, (c) mass density, ρ, and (d) specific
gravity, s.g.
2. If an object has a mass of 22 kg at sea level, (a) what will be its weight at a point
where the acceleration due to gravity is g = 9.75 m/s2? (b) What will be its mass
at that point?
3. What is the weight of a 45-kg boulder if it is brought to a place where the
acceleration to gravity is 395 m/s per minute?
4. If the specific volume of a certain gas is 0.7848 m 3/kg, what is its specific weight?
5. What is the specific weight of air at 480 kPa absolute and 21 0C?
6. Air is kept at a pressure of 200 kPa and at a temperature of 30 0C in a 500-liter
container. What is the mass of the air?

B. Hydrostatic Pressure
1. (a) What is the pressure of water in pascals at the bottom of the lake which is 6 m
deep? (b) What is the absolute pressure of water at the bottom of the lake?
2. What is the pressure at the bottom of seawater 45 m deep? (b) What is the total
force exerted by the seawater on a 4 m by 4 m area at the bottom?
3. A storage tank is 10 m high ang 5 m in diameter. It is filled with water. What is
the total force exerted by the water at the bottom of the tank?
4. The flat roof of a house is 10.0 m long and 8.0 m wide and has a mass of 7500 kg.
Before a severe storm the people in the house closed its doors and windows so
tightly that the air pressure inside remained at 1013 mb even when the outside
pressure fell to 980 mb. Compare the upward force on the roof with its weight.
5. The weight of a 2400-lb car is supported equally by its four tires. The gauge
pressure of the air in the tires is 28.0 psi. Find the are of each tire that is in
contact with the ground.

C. Open-Type Manometer
1. The height of a certain liquid is 20 cm. Its height in water when converted is 25
cm, what is the specific gravity of the liquid?
2. The height of a 5-meter liquid in height of water is 3 m. What is the specific
gravity of the liquid?
3. Convert 30 cm of acetic acid (s.g. = 1.052) to height of acetone (s.g. = 0.787).
 4. Calculate the pressure of the gas inside the container in the
diagram shown at the right.
5. If a depth of liquid of 1 m causes a pressure of 7 kPa, what is
the specific gravity of the liquid?
6. If the pressure 23 meter below a liquid is 338.445 kPa,
determine the unit weight γ , mass density ρ , and specific
gravity s.g.
7. If the pressure at a point in the ocean is 60 kPa, what is the
Fig. 2
pressure 27Fig.meters
3 below this point?
8. Water and then oil are poured into a U-shaped tube, open at
both ends, and do not mix. They come to equilibrium as
shown in Fig. 2. What is the density of the oil? Hint:
Pressures at points a and b are equal.
9. An open tank contains 5.8 m of water covered with 3.2 m of
kerosene (γ =8 kN /m3). Find the pressure at the interface Fig. 2
(point A) and at the bottom of the tank. See Fig. 3.
Fig.

10. If the pressure in the air space above an oil (s.g. = 0.75) surface in a closed
tank is 115 kPa absolute, what is the gage pressure 2 m below the surface?

D. MANOMETER (Differential Type) with Pascal’s Principle

1. For the manometer setup shown at the right, determine the
difference in pressure between A and B.
2. A differential manometer is attached to a pipe as shown
below. Calculate the pressure difference between points A
and B.
 3. Two vessels are connected to differential manometer
using mercury, the connecting tubing being filled with
water. The higher-pressure vessel is 1.5 m lower in y
elevation than the other. (a) If the mercury reading is 100
mm, what is the pressure head difference in meters of
water? (b) If carbon tetrachloride (s = 1.59) were used
instead of mercury, what would be the manometer
reading for the same pressure difference?
1.5
4. A hydraulic press is used to raise an 80-kN cargo truck.
If oil of s.g. 0.82 acts on the piston under pressure of 10
MPa, what is the diameter of piston is required?
5. Piston A has a cross-section of 1,200 sq. cm. while that of
piston B is 950 sq. cm. with the latter higher than piston
A by 1.75 m. If the intervening passages are filled with oil
whose s.g. is 0.8, what is the difference in pressure
between A and B?

6. The figure shown shows a setup with a vessel containing a

plunger and a cylinder. What force F is required to balance
the weight of the cylinder if the weight of the plunger is
negligible?

E. Total Hydrostatic Pressure in a Vertical Plane Surface

1. A vertical rectangular gate 1.5 m wide and 3 m high is
submerged in water with its top edge 2 m below the
water surface. Find the total pressure acting on one
side of the gate and its location from the bottom.
 2. A vertical triangular gate with top base horizontal
y
and 1.5 m wide is 3 m high. It is submerged in oil
having s. g. of 0.82 with its top base submerged
to a depth of 2 m. Determine the magnitude and
location of the total hydrostatic pressure acting
on one side of the gate.

F. Total Hydrostatic Force on Inclined Plane Surface

1. Determine the magnitude and location of the total
hydrostatic force acting on the 2 m x 4 m gate
shown in the figure.

2. The gate in the figure shown is 1.5 m wide, hinged

at point A, and rests against a smooth wall at B.
Compute (a) the total force on the gate due to
seawater, (b) the reaction at B, (c) the reaction at
hinge A. Neglect the weight of the gate.

G. Total Hydrostatic Force on Submerged Curved

Surface
1. The submerged curve AB is one quarter of a circle of
radius 2 m and is located on the lower corner of the
tank shown. The length of the tank perpendicular to
the sketch is 4 m. Find the magnitude of the
horizontal and vertical components of the total force
acting on AB. Find also the resultant force acting on
the curved plate.
 2. The crest gate shown consist of a cylindrical
surface which AB is the base supported by a
structural frame hinged at O. The length of
the gate is 10 m. Compute the magnitude of
the horizontal and vertical components of the
total pressure on AB.
3. Determine the force required to open the
quarter-cylinder gate shown (Fig. 1). The
weight of the gate is 50 kN acting 1.2 m to
the right of O.

H. Hoop Tension
1. Determine the hoop tension at the walls of a 60 cm diameter steel pipe, 25 mm thick,
under a pressure head of 200 m of water and submerged to a depth of 30 m in seawater.
2. A thin-walled hollow sphere 3 m in diameter holds helium gas at 3000 KPa.
Determine the minimum wall thickness of the sphere if its allowable working
stress is 90 MPa.
3. A 300-mm diameter steel pipe 12 mm thick carries water under a head of 50 m of
water. Determine the stress in the steel.
4. Determine the required thickness of a 450 mm diameter steel pipe to carry a
maximum pressure of 5500 kPa if the allowable working stress of steel is 124
MPa.
5. Determine the stress at the walls of a 200 mm diameter pipe, 10 mm thick, under
a pressure of 150 m of water and submerged to a depth of 20 m in salt water.
6. A wooded storage vat is 6 m in diameter and is filled with 7 m of oil, s = 0.8. The
wood staves are bound by flat steel bands, 50 mm wide by 6 mm thick, whose
allowable tensile stress is 110 MPa. What is the required spacing of the bands
near the bottom of the vat, neglecting any initial stress?
7. A vertical cylindrical tank is 2 meters in diameter and 3 meters high. Its sides are
held in position by means of two steel hoops, one at the top and the other at the
bottom. If the tank is filled with water to a depth of 2.1 m, (a) determine the
tension in each hoop. (b) Determine also the tensile stress in each hoop if the
hoops are 10 mm in diameter.
I. Dams
1. A rectangular dam has a base width of 3m and a height
of 6m, retains water to a height of 5m. If the coefficient
of friction between the base of the dam and the
foundation soil is 0.42. Neglecting hydrostatic uplift and
assume the unit weight of concrete to be 23.6 kN/m3, F
compute the following:
a. resultant force at the base of the foundation
b. factor of safety against sliding
c. factor of safety against overturning
d. the intensity pressure at the toe
Rx
2. The section of a concrete gravity dam shown in the Ry
figure. The depth of water at the upstream side is 6 m.
Neglect hydrostatic uplift and use weight concrete equal
to 23.5 kN/m3. Coefficient of friction between the base of
the dam and the foundation is 0.6. Determine the following: (a) factor of safety
against sliding, and (b) the safety factor against overturning.

J. Buoyancy
1. A metal block weighs 200 pounds in air and has a weight density of 480 lbs/ft3. It is
immersed in sea water that has a weight density of 64 lbs/ft3. How much force is would
be required to lift it while it is immersed?
2. A stone weighs 460N in air. When submerged in water, it weighs 300N. Compute the
following:
a. Buoyant force
b. Volume of the stone
c. Unit weight of the stone
3. A hollow cylinder 1m in diameter and 2m high weighs 3825 N. How many KN of lead
whose unit weight is 110 KN/m3 must be fastened to the outside bottom of the cylinder to
make it float with 1.5 m submerged in water?

K. Fundamentals of Fluid Flow

1. A fluid having a kinematic viscosity v = 0.00004 m2/s flows in a 800-m long pipe having a
diameter of 30 mm and a mean velocity of V = 2 m/s. What is the characteristics of the
flow?
2. A pipeline consists of a successive lengths of diameters equal to 250 mm, 300
mm, 350 mm with continuous flow through the line of 0.250 m 3/s of water.
Compute the mean velocity of each pipe.
3. Water flows through a 100-mm diameter pipe at velocity of 4.5 m/sec. Find the
discharge.
4. Water having a kinematic viscosity v = 0.0000013 m2/s flows in a 50-mm
diameter pipe at a velocity of 4 m/s. Is the flow laminar or turbulent?