MODULE in FLUID MECHANICS and

HYDRAULICS

Celeste Acedera De Asis

Master in Civil Engineering
(Water Resources Management
Module 4. Hydrostatic Forces

Overview
This module is intended to provide knowledge on how to calculate the forces
developed when surface is submerged for the reason that determination of these
forces are important in the design of the storage tanks, ships, dams (and sluice gate)
and other hydraulic structures.

Learning Objectives
The students are expected to be able to calculate the hydrostatic pressure
force on a plane or curved submerged surface; and
Topics
This module presents the following topics:
• Hydrostatic Forces on Submerged Plane Surfaces
• Hydrostatic Forces on Submerged Curve Surfaces

Introduction
Fluid statics deals with problems associated with fluids at rest. The fluid can
be either gaseous or liquid. Fluid statics is generally referred to as hydrostatics when
the fluid is a liquid and as aerostatics when the fluid is a gas. In fluid statics, there is
no relative motion between adjacent fluid layers, and thus there are no shear
(tangential) stresses in the fluid trying to deform it. The only stress we deal with in
fluid statics is the normal stress, which is the pressure, and the variation of pressure
is due only to the weight of the fluid. Therefore, the topic of fluid statics has
significance only in gravity fields, and the force relations developed naturally involve
the gravitational acceleration g. The force exerted on a surface by a fluid at rest is
normal to the surface at the point of contact since there is no relative motion between
the fluid and the solid surface, and thus no shear forces can act parallel to the
surface.

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.
Discussion
Lesson 1. Hydrostatic Forces on Submerged Plane Surfaces

• For fluids at rest, we know that the force must be perpendicular to the surface
since there are no shearing stresses present.
• As shown in the Fig. 4.1, if the fluid is incompressible, we also know that the
pressure will vary linearly with depth.
• For a horizontal surface (Fig. 4.16a), the magnitude of the resultant force is
simply F=pA where p is the uniform pressure on the bottom and A is the area
of the bottom.
• For the open tank shown, where p=γh.
• Note that if atmospheric pressure acts on both sides of the bottom, as is
illustrated, the resultant force on the bottom is simply due to the liquid in the
tank. Since the pressure is constant and uniformly distributed over the bottom,
the resultant force acts through the centroid of the area as shown in Fig. 4.1a.
• As shown in Fig. 4.1b, the pressure on the ends of the tank is not uniformly
distributed.

a. Pressure on tank bottom b. Pressure on tank ends

Fig. 4.1 a. Pressure on tank bottom. b. Pressure on tank ends
Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

• The resultant force of a static fluid on a plane surface is due to the

hydrostatic pressure distribution on the surface.
 Fig. 4.2. Notation for hydrostatic force on an inclined plane surface of
arbitrary shape.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

• For the more general case in which a submerged plane surface is inclined, as
is illustrated in Fig. 4.2, the determination of the resultant force acting on the
surface is more involved.
• For the present we will assume that the fluid surface is open to the
atmosphere.
• Let the plane in which the surface lies intersect the free surface at 0 and make
an angle θ with this surface as in Fig. 4.2.
• The x–y coordinate system is defined so that 0 is the origin and y 0 (i.e., the
x-axis) is directed along the surface as shown.
• The area can have an arbitrary shape as shown.
• We wish to determine the direction, location, and magnitude of the resultant
force acting on one side of this area due to the liquid in contact with the area.
• . At any given depth, h, the force acting on dA 1the differential area of (Fig.
4.1) is dF = γh dA and is perpendicular to the surface.
• Thus, the magnitude of the resultant force can be found by summing these
differential forces over the entire surface.
• It becomes

• where is the vertical distance from the fluid surface to the centroid of the area.
• The y coordinate, of the resultant force can be determined by summation of
moments around the x axis.
• The y coordinate, of the resultant force can be determined by summation of
moments around the x axis.
• That is, the moment of the resultant force must equal the moment of the
distributed pressure force, or
• The x coordinate, xR for the resultant force can be determined in a similar
manner by summing moments about the y axis. Thus,

therefore,

where Ixy is the product of inertia with respect to the x and y axes. Again,
using the parallel axis theorem, we can write

Where Ixyc is the product of inertia with respect to an orthogonal coordinate

system passing through the centroid of the area and formed by a translation
of the x–y coordinate system.
• If the submerged area is symmetrical with respect to an axis passing through
the centroid and parallel to either the x or y axes, the resultant force must lie
along the line x =xc since Ixyc is identically zero in this case.
• The point through which the resultant force acts is called the center of
pressure.
• The magnitude of the resultant fluid force is equal to the pressure acting at the
centroid of the area multiplied by the total area.
• Centroidal coordinates and moments of inertia for some common areas are
given in Fig. 4.2.

Fig. 4.2. Geometric properties of some common shapes.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sample Prob. 1

Lesson 2. Hydrostatic Forces on Submerged Curve Surfaces

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sample Prob. 2

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.
Sample Prob. 3

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W. 2010.
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Pressure Prism
• The magnitude of the resultant fluid force is equal to the volume of the pressure
prism and passes through its centroid.
• The use of the pressure prism concept to determine the force on a submerged
area is best suited for plane rectangular surfaces.
• The resultant fluid force acting on a submerged area is affected by the pressure
at the free surface.
• Below are figures for pressure prism to be easily visualized.

Fig. 4.3 Pressure prism for vertical rectangular area.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Fig. 4.4 Graphical representation of hydrostatic forces on a vertical

rectangular surface.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Fig. 4.5 Pressure variation along an inclined plane area.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Fig. 4.6 Effect of atmospheric pressure on the resultant force acting on a

plane vertical wall.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Fig. 4.7 The hydrostatic forces acting on a plane surface form a volume
whose base (left face) is the surface and whose height is the pressure.

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics:

Fundamentals and Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.

Fig. 4.8 Hydrostatic force acting on the top surface of a submerged rectangular
plate for tilted, vertical, and horizontal cases.
 Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.

Sample Prob. 4

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lesson 2. Hydrostatic Forces on Submerged Curved Surfaces

Fig. 4.9. Determination of the hydrostatic force acting on a submerged curved

surface.
Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.

• For a submerged curved surface, the determination of the resultant hydrostatic

force is more involved since it typically requires the integration of the pressure
forces that change direction along the curved surface.
• The concept of the pressure prism in this case is not much help either because
of the complicated shapes involved.
• The easiest way to determine the resultant hydrostatic force FR acting on a
twodimensional curved surface is to determine the horizontal and vertical
components FH and FV separately.
• This is done by considering the free-body diagram of the liquid block enclosed
by the curved surface and the two plane surfaces (one horizontal and one
vertical) passing through the two ends of the curved surface.
• Note that the vertical surface of the liquid block considered is simply the
projection of the curved surface on a vertical plane, and the horizontal surface
is the projection of the curved surface on a horizontal plane.
• The resultant force acting on the curved solid surface is then equal and
opposite to the force acting on the curved liquid surface (Newton’s third law).
• The weight of the enclosed liquid block of volume V is simply W = ρgV, and it
acts downward through the centroid of this volume.
• Noting that the fluid block is in static equilibrium, the force balances in the
horizontal and vertical directions give

Horizontal Force Component on Curved Surface F H = FX

Vertical Force Component on Curved Surface F V = FY + W

where the summation FY + W is a vector addition (i.e. add magnitudes if both

act in the same direction and subtract if they act in opposite direction).

• The horizontal component of the hydrostatic force acting on a curved surface

is equal (in both magnitude and the line of action) to the hydrostatic force acting
on the vertical projection of the curved surface.
• The vertical component of the hydrostatic force acting on a curved surface is
equal to the hydrostatic force acting on the horizontal projection of the curved
surface, plus (minus, if acting in the opposite direction) the weight of the fluid
block.

Fig. 411. When a curved surface is above the liquid, the weight of the liquid and
the vertical component of the hydrostatic force act in the opposite directions.

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.

• The magnitude of the resultant hydrostatic force acting on the curved surface

is 𝐹 𝐹 , and the tangent of the angle it makes with the horizontal is

 tan α= FV /FH. The exact location of the line of action of the resultant force (e.g.
its distance from one of the end points of the curved surface) can be
determined by taking a moment about an appropriate point.
• These discussions are valid for all curved surfaces regardless of whether they
are above or below the liquid.
• Note that in the case of a curved surface above a liquid, the weight of the liquid
is subtracted from the vertical component of the hydrostatic force since they
act in opposite directions (Fig. 5.0).
• When the curved surface is a circular arc (full circle or any part of it), the
resultant hydrostatic force acting on the surface always passes through the
center of the circle.
• This is because the pressure forces are normal to the surface, and all lines
normal to the surface of a circle pass through the center of the circle.
• Thus, the pressure forces form a concurrent force system at the center, which
can be reduced to a single equivalent force at that point (Fig. 5.1).

Fig. 4.12. The hydrostatic force acting on a circular surface always passes
through the center of the circle since the pressure forces are normal to the
surface and they all pass through the center.

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.
 Fig. 4.13 The hydrostatic force on a surface submerged in a multilayered
fluid can be determined by considering parts of the surface in different
fluids as different surfaces.

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.

• Finally, hydrostatic forces acting on a plane or curved surface submerged in a

multilayered fluid of different densities can be determined by considering
different parts of surfaces in different fluids as different surfaces, finding the
force on each part, and then adding them using vector addition. For a plane
surface, it can be expressed as (Fig. 5.2)

where PC, i = P0 + ρighC,i is the pressure at the centroid of the portion of the
surface in fluid i and Ai is the area of the plate in that fluid. The line of action of
this equivalent force can be determined from the requirement that the moment
of the equivalent force about any point is equal to the sum of the moments of
the individual forces about the same point.

Sample Preob. 5
 Source: Cengel, Yunus A.
and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid
Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-
Hill.
Sample Prob. 6

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
SWtudent Activity 4
Answer the following Problems. GIVEN-REQT-SOLUTION-ANSWER.

1. A gate having the cross section shown below closes an opening 5 ft wide
and 4 ft high in a water reservoir. The gate weighs 500 lb and its center of
gravity is 1 ft to the left of AC and 2 ft above BC. Determine the horizontal
reaction that is developed on the gate at C.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.

2. A rectangular gate that is 2 m wide is located in the vertical wall of a tank

containing water as shown below It is desired to have the gate open
automatically when the depth of water above the top of the gate reaches
10 m. (a) At what distance, d, should the frictionless horizontal shaft be
located? (b) What is the magnitude of the force on the gate when it opens?
Answer the following Problems. GIVEN-REQT-SOLUTION-ANSWER.

3. A 4-m-long quarter-circular gate of radius 3 m and of negligible weight is

hinged about its upper edge A, as shown below. The gate controls the flow
of water over the ledge at B, where the gate is pressed by a spring.
Determine the minimum spring force required to keep the gate closed when
the water level rises to A at the upper edge of the gate.

Source: Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.

4. The 18-ft-long gate is a quarter circle and is hinged at H. Determine the

horizontal force, P, required to hold the gate in place. Neglect friction at the
hinge and the weight of the gate.

Source: Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade W.
2010 . Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
Feedback
The student is a way of familiarization of the different applications of the theory and
principle discussed.

Summary
This module discussed the general approach for determining the magnitude
and location of the resultant fluid force acting on a curved surface in contact with a
static fluid. Thus, the students should be able to
• determine the magnitude, direction, and location of the resultant hydrostatic
force acting on a plane surface.
• determine the magnitude, direction, and location of the resultant hydrostatic
force acting on a curved surface.
• The following formula have been discussed

References
1. Cengel, Yunus A. and John M. Cimbala. 2006. Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals
and Applications. New York. McGraw-Hill.
2. Munson, Bruce R., Young, Donald F., Okiishi, Theodore H., Huebsch, Wade
W. 2010. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. United States of America. John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.