Hydrostatic Pressure and
Manometry
ENGR 356 Fluid Mechanics
Abdulwadood Ihab Abduladood
Ahmed Nael Naji
Ahmed Taher Hussein
Rozh Shirwan Abdulla
February 15, 2026
1
Abstract
Generally, In fluid mechanics, for understanding a concept, an experiment has to be
conducted in order to get the idea behind that concept. This experiment focuses on
center of pressure, and this was performed to understand the concept, and the way the
hydrostatic force affect on the submerged surfaces. There were different materials used
in this experiment, such as water tank, a weight for balance against the hydrostatic force,
and a plate in quadrant shape attached to an arm. It was conducted through adding
water to the tank several times to change the depth of the submerging surface, and
adding external weights to balance the level of the plate with water where they reach
equilibriium. There were variety of parameters in this experiment which they can be
divided into two groups where the first one is the measured parameters that contained
the height of the water, and the external added mass, while the second one is calculated
parameters which contained the location of center of pressure, and the hydrostatic force.
The experiment concluded that the hydrostatic force gets higher as the depth of water is
increased, and the location of the center of pressure is below the center of the submerged
surface.
Contents
1 Background 3
2 Methodology 3
3 Results 3
4 Discussion 4
5 Conclusion 4
2
1 Background
In fluid mechanics, center of pressure refers to a point where the resultant of the hy-
drostatic force affects on a submerged surface. Pressure increases with depth of water
according to the formula:
p = ρgh (1)
where p is the pressure, ρ is the fluid density, g is gravitational acceleration, and h is the
vertical depth below the free surface.
From the experiment we can confirm that pressure increases with depth. However, this
increment is not uniform over a vertical or inclined surface. Therefore, the hydrostatic
force affects the lower point of the area which is the center of the pressure.
The magnitude of the hydrostatic force on a plane surface is given by the formula:
F = ρghC A (2)
where hC is the depth of the centroid and A is the area of the surface. The center of the
pressure is located beneath the centroid for vertical surfaces submerged in a liquid, and
it depends on the second moment of area.
This measurement in fluid mechanic application lays the base for vital engineering appli-
cations, such as building dams, designing gates, and water tanks. It is crucial to calculate
and annotate the line of action and the magnitude for the hydrostatic force in order to
achieve a safe and stable design. Furthermore, the lab experiments generally, creates a
great opportunity to understand such important topics.[1]
2 Methodology
3 Results
The lever arm of the water can be calculated with the moment equilibrium equation:
ΣM = 0 = W L − F Lcp
The weight W can be calculated by multiplying the mass by gravitational acceleration,
the lever arm of the mass L = 0.285 m, and the force F can be calculated from the
pressure:
Z Z
1
F = p dA = ρgbh dh = ρgbh2
A h 2
Where ρ = 1000 kg/m3 , and b = 0.07 mm. The experimental center of pressure can then
be calculated as:
ycp = Lcp − d + h
3
where d = 0.2 m is the outer diameter of the apparatus. This will be compared to the
theoretical center of pressure which is two thirds of the water level.
The following is a table of the measured values and the subsequent calculated values.
Both the experimental and theoretical centers of pressure are given, as well as the absolute
error.
Table 1: The results of the experiment
h (mm) W (g) F (N) Experimental ycp (mm) Theoretical ycp (mm) Error%
29 20 0.289 22.6 19.3 17.1
50 55 0.858 29.1 33.3 12.6
70 110 1.68 52.8 46.7 13.1
117 270 4.70 77.6 78.0 0.502
128 310 5.62 82.1 85.3 3.82
145 370 7.22 88.3 96.7 8.66
4 Discussion
5 Conclusion
References
[1] F. M. White, Fluid Mechanics, 8th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2016.