1.

INTRODUCTION
Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the fluid mechanics branch that studies resting fluids. It
includes studying the conditions under which fluids are in stable balance as opposed to fluid
dynamics, studying fluids in motion. Hydrostatics are classified as part of the fluid statics, which
is the study of all fluids at rest, whether incompressible or not. Hydrostatics is essential for
hydraulics, equipment engineering for fluid storage, transportation and use. It is also relevant to
geophysics and astrophysics (for example, in understanding plate tectonics and the gravitational
field anomalies of the Earth), meteorology, medicine (in the blood pressure context), and many
other fields. Hydrostatics provides physical explanations for many everyday phenomena, such as
why atmospheric pressure changes with altitude, why wood and oil float on water, and why the
water surface is always flat and horizontal regardless of the shape of its container.

Anybody with an arbitrary shape immersed in a fluid, in whole or in part, will experience
the action of a net force in the opposite direction of the local pressure gradient. If this gradient of
pressure arises from gravity, net force is in the opposite direction of gravitational force in the
vertical direction. This vertical force is known as buoyancy or buoyant force and is equal to the
weight of the displaced fluid in magnitude, but opposite in direction. Mathematically,

F=ρgV
where ρ is the fluid density, g is the gravity acceleration and V is the fluid volume directly above
the curved surface. For example, in the case of a ship, the pressure forces from the surrounding
water balance its weight, allowing it to float. If more cargo were to be loaded onto the ship, it
would sink more into the water – displacing more water and receiving a higher buoyant force to
balance the increased weight. Archimedes is attributed to the discovery of the principle of
buoyancy.

2. THEORY
 When the quadrant is immersed in water, the forces acting on the quadrant surfaces can
be analyzed as the hydrostatic force is normal to the surface at any point on the curved surfaces
and therefore resolves through the pivot point as the pivot point is at the origin of the radii.
Therefore, hydrostatic forces on the curved top and bottom surfaces have no net torque effect.
The forces on the quadrant's sides are equal and opposite horizontal forces, the balance weight
counteracts the hydrostatic force on the vertical submerged face. At balance, the sum of the pivot
point moments is zero. Thus,

mgL=FYr
Where m is the hanging mass, g is the gravity acceleration, L is the distance from the pivot point
to the hanging mass, and h ' is the distance from the pivot point to the centre of the pressure. The
location of the centre of pressure on the end face can be determined for either a partially
submerged vertical face or a fully submerged vertical face with the mass, balance length, and
hydrostatic force determined. The location of the centre of pressure on the end face can be
determined for either a partially submerged vertical face or a fully submerged vertical face with
the mass, balance length, and hydrostatic force determined.

Partially Submerged Vertical Plane

For the case of a partially submerged face the hydrostatic thrust is defined as
[2]
 F=ρgAyc
where A is the wetted surface area of the vertical face ( W∙d), ρ is the density of water, and h is
the mean depth of immersion (h = d/2). Therefore, the hydrostatic thrust is
[3]
1
F= ρgW d 2
2
Substituting Eqn. 3 into Eqn. 1 and solving for Yr yields the experimentally determined distance
between the pivot point and center of pressure
[4]
mgl
Yr=
F
The theoretical depth of pressure below the free surface is

Ix [5]
Yp= +Yc
AYc
where Ix is the 2nd moment of area of the immersed section about an axis in the free surface.
Applying the parallel axes theorem yields
[6]
W d3 d 2 W d3
2
I x =I c + A Yc =
12
+Wd
2
=
3()
Substituting Eqn. 6 into Eqn. 5 yields

2d [7]
Yp=
3
From geometry, the theoretical depth of center of pressure below the pivot point is

Yr=Yp + Ro−d [8]

Combining Eqn. 7 and Eqn. 8 yields the theoretical depth of center of pressure

d [9]
Yr=Ro−
3
Fully Submerged Vertical Plane

For the case where the vertical face of the quadrant is fully submerged, the hydrostatic thrust is

D [10]
F=ρgAYc=ρgWD d − ( 2 )
Substituting Eqn. 10 into Eqn. 1 the experimental distance between the pivot point and the center
of pressure is

mL
Yr=
D
ρWD d−( 2 ) [11]

The theoretical depth of pressure below the free surface is given by Eqn. 5. Applying the
parallel axes theorem for the fully submerged surface yields
[12]
D2 2
D
2
I x =I c + A Yc =WD
12 [ ( )]
+ d−
2

Inserting Eqn. 12 into Eqn. 5 yields

D2 2 [13]
D
Yp=
12
+ d−( 2 )
d−D /2
Substituting Eqn. 13 into Eqn. 8 the theoretical depth of center of pressure below the pivot point
is
[14]
D2 D 2
Yr=Ro+
12
+ d− (
2
−d
)
d −D/ 2
 3. PROCEDURE
1. The width,W , length,L and
diameter,D of the arm was
measured.
2.Level the apparatus using the
adjustable feet facilitate by the
spirit level attached.
3.Adjust the counter-weight to
level the balance arm to
horizontal position.
6.Place a 50 g weight on the
balance pan and slowly add water 7.Record the mass of weight,
into the tank until the balance m and depth of immersion, d.
arm is again horizontal.
5.Make sure that the drain valve
is closed and slowly add water
into the tank until the water 8.Repeat steps 6 and 7 with
increasing number of weights
surface just touches the
quadrant base, thus establishing until the tank is full of water.
a datum level corresponding to
zero at the level scale.
4.Adjust the counter-weight to 9.Drain off the water after
level the balance arm to the experiment is completed.
horizontal position.
 4. RESULTS

Apparatus Design Geometry Uncertainty

Length of Balance, L (m) = 0.276 +-0.05
Height of Quadrant, D (m) = 0.100 +-0.05
Width of Quadrant, W (m) = 0.800 +-0.05
R1 (m) = 0.202 +-0.05
Table 1

Case Mass Depth(m) Average Force Yr(exp) Yr Error Comment

1 2 3
(kg) Depth(m) (N) (theo) (%)
1 0.05 0.037 0.038 0.037 0.037 0.545 0.24827 0.18956 30.98 PS
2 0.10 0.056 0.057 0.056 0.056 1.242 0.21808 0.18322 19.03 PS
3 0.15 0.070 0.071 0.070 0.070 1.935 .0.20986 0.17856 17.53 PS
4 0.20 0.083 0.084 0.083 0.083 2.717 0.19932 0.1422 14.40 PS
5 0.25 0.094 0.095 0.094 0.094 3.481 0.19443 0.17056 14.00 PS
6 0.30 0.105 0.106 0.104 0.105 4.303 0.18875 0.16715 12.92 FS
7 0.35 0.115 0.117 0.116 0.116 5.164 0.1351 0.16463 11.47 FS
Table 2
 avg depth yr-yc (exp) yr-yc (theo)

0.037 0.22961 0.17089

0.056 0.18992 0.15506
0.070 0.17469 0.14339
0.083 0.15765 0.13256
0.094 0.14726 0.12339
0.105 0.13625 0.11465
0.116 0.12551 0.10663
Table 3

5. DISCUSSION

The force applied in the system vertical face of the buoyant material counteract the mass
added to the hanging arm. So we know that if we move away from the sea level the pressure will
change either with air or water. Therefore, in our experiment also change in pressure because of
the weight of the water above and buoyant force clearly show the properties of water. The water
pressure was so high that we add the mass 50g to 250g even still in quadrant was able to support
it in static equilibrium. So the idea let us to believe that the curved are allows for a larger surface
with which the water can act upon for less change in depth. This would explain such a large
jump in force applied after breaking the upper plane of the vertical face.

From the experiment we can see that as the depth of the water increased, the hydrostatic
force increased and the distance to the center of pressure decreased. The center of pressure
moved closer to the center of the vertical face as the depth increased. The experimental values
for the distance to the center of pressure were a little bit higher than theoretical distances at
nearly all submersion depth. Since the same hydrostatic force us used to calculate the turning
moments, the experimental turning moment was also a little bit higher than the theoretical
turning moment at nearly all submersion depths.

Both the experimental and theoretical values are calculated using different relation
between the distance and depths, some of the errors in those measurements are probably present
in both sets of calculations. The experimental distance to the center also calculated using the
mass and the water density. One possible cause of the higher experimental distances is that the
mass is slightly larger than labelled. If the weights have dirt, oil, or other debris attached to them,
they would weigh more than labelled, and this would result in an underestimation of the
experimental distance to the center of the pressure.

6. CONCLUSION

According to the table, the predicted depths and the measure depths have a significant
percent error. The percent difference decreased as the weight increased, which can be explained
by the fact that smaller weight was easier to be affected by air resistance as well as other
environmental conditions in the laboratory area, which caused errors in calculated results
because air resistance and environmental condition was neglected in the experiment.

Error is also introduced when water splashes onto the quadrant weighs the quadrant
down, requiring more water to increase the hydrostatic force to balance the weight of the stray
water. This overestimation of the depth results in an underestimation of the experimental
distance to the center of pressure. Other sources of error include inaccuracy in the measurement
of the depth and inaccuracy in the determination of when the balance arm is balanced on the
pivot.

REFERENCES

● Yunus, A.C., & John, M. C. (2014). Fluid Mechanics (3rd Edition). United States (USA):

McGraw Hill Education.

● Habib Ahmari . (2018). Hydrostatic Pressure-Applied Fluid Mechanics. University of

Texas.

● Hydrostatic Forces on Submerged Surface. Retrieved on: 10 March 2018

web.cecs.pdx.edu/~gerry/class/EAS361/lab/pdf/lab3_hydrostatics.pdf

● Hydrostatic Force on Plane Surface. Retrieved on: 9 March 2018

www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/~hsalmun/intro2fm07web/lectures/chapter2_2.pdf