HYDROSTATIC FORCES ON CURVED SURFACES

CE 411 (FLUID MECHANICS)

 HYDROSTATIC FORCE ON A CURVED SURFACE

• The hydrostatic force on a curved surface can be best analyzed by resolving the
total pressure force on the surface into its horizontal and vertical components.

• Then combine these forces to obtain the resultant force and its direction.

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 ∑F x =0 FH = FAC
• FH = Resultant force on the projection of the curved surface
onto a vertical plane.

• FH acts horizontally through the centre of pressure of the

projection of the curved surface onto a vertical plane.

• We can use the pressure diagram method to calculate the

position and magnitude of the resultant horizontal force on a
curved surface.

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 ∑F y =0 FV = FCB + W

• FV = The resultant vertical force of a fluid above a curved

surface equal to the weight of fluid directly above the
curved surface.

• It acts vertically downward through the center of gravity

of the mass of fluid.

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Resultant force
• The overall resultant force is found by combining the vertical and
horizontal components vectorialy:

F = FH2 + FV2

• The angle the resultant force makes to the horizontal is:

 FV 
θ = tan 
−1

 FH 

• The position of F is the point of intersection of the horizontal line of

action of FH and the vertical line of action of FV .
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Centroid of a Quadrant

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 SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 1

The dam shown in the figure

is a quarter circle 50 m wide
into the paper. Determine
the horizontal and vertical
components of hydrostatic
force against the dam and
the point CP where the
resultant strikes the dam.
 SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 2

Gate AB is a quarter-
circle 10 ft wide and
hinged at B. Find the
force F just sufficient to
keep the gate from
opening. The gate is
uniform and weighs 3000
lbf.
 SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 3

Compute the horizontal

and vertical components
of the hydrostatic force on
the quarter-circle panel at
the bottom of the water
tank shown in the figure.