4.

1 Hydrostatic Force on Curved

Surfaces

Intended Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module, the students will be able to:

To analyze the hydrostatic pressure on curved surfaces in a given condition.

To compute horizontal and vertical components of hydrostatic force on curved surfaces and its
resultant under various circumstances.

Introduction
If a submerged surface is curved, then the pressure acting on the surface will change not only its
magnitude but also its direction, since it must always act normal to the surface. In this case, it is
generally best to determine the horizontal and vertical components of the resultant force caused by
the pressure, and then use vector addition to find the resultant.

Hydrostatic Force on Curved Surfaces

Consider the curved gate surface having a length L (perpendicular to the screen) subjected to water
pressure as shown in the figure. The pressure diagram for the curved gate is shown in figure (A).

By Pascal's Law, the pressure at any depth h remains the same in all directions no matter what the
orientation of the surface is. In the case of a curved surface, the pressure acting at any point is
directed normal to the curve at that point as shown in (A).
If the curve is a circular curve, then the pressure acting at any point must pass through the centroid
of the circle (any tangent to a circle is normal to its radius). The resultant of these differential forces,
therefore, also passes through the center of the circle.

Horizontal Component, FH

The horizontal component of the total hydrostatic force on any surface is always equal to the
pressure on the vertical projection of the surface. The resultant force at the horizontal component can
be located through the center of the pressure of this projection.

where Av is the vertically projected area of the curved surface.

Vertical Component, Fv

The vertical component of the total hydrostatic pressure force on any surface is always equal to the
weight of the entire water column above the surface extending vertically to the free surface. The
resultant force of the vertical component can be located through the centroid of the column

Resultant Force, F

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