KENYA WATER INSTITUTE

COURSE: DIPLOMA IN WATER ENGENEERING

YEAR OF STUDY:11/09/2021

REGISTRATION NO: DWE1/J10119/2021

 REPORT ON MANOMETER
INTRODUCTION:

Manometer are precision instruments that are used to measure pressure, which is the force
exerted by a gas or liquid per unit surface area owing to the effects of the weight of the gas or
liquid from gravity. NIST recognizes the U tube manometer as a primary standard due to its
inherent accuracy and simplicity of operation. Manometers operate on the hydrostatic balance
principle: a liquid column of known height will exert a known pressure when the weight per
unit volume of the liquid is known. the fundamental relationship for pressure expressed by a
liquid column is:
p p2-p1 pgh
In all forms of manometers (U tube, well types, and inclines (there are two liquid surfaces.
Pressure determination are made by how the fluid moves when pressures are applied to each
surface. For gauge pressure, p2 is equal to zero (atmospheric reference (, simplifying the
equation to
P pgh

TYPES OF MANOMETERS AND HOW THEY WORK

1. U TUBE MANOMETER

The simplest form of manometer consists of a U-shaped glass tube

containing liquid. It is used to measure gauge pressure and are the
primary instruments used in the workshop for caliberation.
The principle of the manometer is that the pressure to be measured is
applied to one side of the tube producing a movement of liquid, as
shown in figure above. It can be seen that the level of the filling liquid
in the leg where the pressure is applied, i.e. the left leg of the tube, has
dropped, while that in the right hand leg as risen. A scale is fitted
between the tubes to enable us to measure this displacement.

Let us assume that the pressure we are measuring and have applied to
the left hand side of the manometer is of constant value. The liquid
will only stop moving when the pressure exerted by the column of
liquid, H is sufficient to balance the pressure applied to the left side of
the manometer, i.e. when the head pressure produced by column ” H ”
is equal to the pressure to be measured.

Knowing the length of the column of the liquid, H, and density of the
filling liquid, we can calculate the value of the applied pressure.

The applied Pressure = ρ × g × h

y suitable choice of filling liquid, various low ranges of gauge pressure

can be measured from about 500 Pa to 1.5 bar.

Typical filling liquids commonly used in manometers and their

densities.

1. Water ( ρ = 1000 kg m-3 )

2. Oil ( ρ can be between 800 and 950 kg m-3 )
3.  Mercury ( ρ = 13560 kg m-3 )

[Link]-TYPES MANOMETER

Well Manometer – same as the U-tube except for the reservoir on the
high-pressure side. It is sometimes called a single column gauge.

The manometer consists of a metal well of large cross sectional area

connected to a glass tube, or limb. This system normally contains
mercury as the filling liquid.

As shown in figure above, both the well and the limb are open to
atmosphere, in which case the level of mercury in the well is equal to
that in the limb.
In the well type manometer, the pressure to be measured is normally
applied to the well. When pressure applied to the well the level of
liquid in the well falls by the distance ” x ” and the level in the limb
rises by the distance ” h “.

When the column of liquid (h + x) exerts a pressure equal to the

pressure applied to the well, the liquid stops moving.

The value of (h + x) will increase as the pressure to be measured

increases and will decrease as the pressure to be measured decreases.
The value of (h + x) can be read from a scale positioned as shown in
the diagram above.

This scale is normally calibrated in units of pressure, e.g. mm of

mercury gauge or Pascal ( Pa ), so that the pressure can be read
directly from the device.

[Link] MANOMETER

A manometer that provides even better accuracy than the U-tube

manometer is the inclined manometer.
This manometer has a well that contains the liquid and a
transparent column.
The column is mounted at an angle.
The pressure is indicated by the vertical amount the liquid rises or
falls in the column. Because of the incline, a small change in
pressure will cause greater movement of the liquid in the column.

EXPERIMENT ON HOW TO DETERMINE PRESSURE ON MANOMETER

The first pressure measuring device we will use is a U-tube manometer. It consists of a U-tube with one
end connected to the container with an unknown pressure and the other end open to the known
atmospheric pressure. The fluid in the U-tube manometer (gage fluid) can be different from the fluid in the
container.

The procedure for determining the pressure inside the container is:
(1) Start from one end, and work from one fluid level to another, up to the open end of the manometer.
(2) Remember that pressure increases linearly with depth for a fluid at rest.

U-tube manometer
Consider the U-tube manometer shown. The pressure at point A inside the tank is calculated as:

     pA + ρ1gh1 - ρ2gh2 = 0

which gives:   

     pA = ρ2gh2 - ρ1gh1

Once again, gage pressure is used in the above equation (i.e., theatmospheric pressure at the open end
is zero gage). If the fluid in the tank is a gas, then the pressure between point 1 and 2 is negligible, hence

pA = ρ2gh2

Differential U tube manometer

The U-tube manometer also can be used to determine the pressure difference between two systems. This
type of manometer is called a differential U-tube manometer. Consider the differential manometer
connected between tanks A and B, as shown in the figure. The pressure will be determined by moving
from point A to point B:

     pA + ρ1gh1 - ρ2gh2 - ρ3gh3 = pB

The pressure difference is given by

     pA - pB = ρ2gh2 + ρ3gh3 - ρ1g

Another type of manometer is the inclined-tube manometer which is used to measure small pressure
differences between two systems (say for gases). The advantage of the inclined manometer is that the
differential reading scales along the tube can be made large compared to a vertical manometer for a
given pressure difference, hence improving the accuracy in reading the scale.

The pressure difference between point A and B is given by

     pA + ρ1gh1 - ρ2gL2sinθ - ρ3gh3 = pB

For cases where the columns h1 and h3 are gas, the weights can be neglected, simplifying the equation

     pA - pB = ρ2gL2 sinθ

Inclined-Tube Manometer

RESULTS
Manometers measure a pressure difference by balancing the weight of a fluid column between the two
pressures of [Link] pressure differences are measured with heavy fluids such as mercury.

CONCLUSION
Presuure of a gas in a closed container is equal in everywhere .and manometers are used for measuring
of gas in aclosed container.  

RECOMMENDATION
The most accurate way to measure low air pressure is tobalance a column of liquid of known weight
against it and measure the height of the liquid so balanced.