UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CIV2040S Fluid Mechanics

Problem Set #1 (Pressure and its measurement)

CM&B = Andrew Chadwick, John Morfett & Martin Borthwick, ‘Hydraulics in Civil and
Environmental Engineering, 5th Edition’, CRC Press, 2013
F&F = E. John Finnemore & Joseph B. Franzini, ‘Fluid Mechanics with Engineering Applications,
Tenth Edition’, McGraw-Hill, 2002
M = Bernard Massey (revised John Ward-Smith), ‘Mechanics of Fluids, Eighth edition’, Taylor &
Francis, 2006
U = Unknown origin
NPA = Neil Philip Armitage

F&F2.3.2 If the specific weight of a liquid is 8.1 kN/m3, what is its density?
(826 kg/m3)
U1 A tank of glycerine has a mass of 1200 kg and a volume of 0.952 m3. Find the glycerine’s:
weight, mass density, specific weight and specific gravity
(11.77 kN; 1261 kg/m3; 12.36 kN/m3; 1.261)
U2 The weather report states that the atmospheric pressure is 970 mbar, what is the pressure
in Pa?
(97 Pa)
U3 Calculate the pressure at a depth of 10 m in water given standard atmospheric pressure
(101.3 kPa)
(199.4 kPa)
F&F3.2.2 Neglecting the pressure on the surface and the compressibility of water, what is the
pressure in MPa at a depth of 4600 m below the surface of the ocean given the specific
weight of seawater is 10.05 kN/m3?
(46.7 MPa)
U4 A pressure vessel (shown below) contains glycerine (1258 kg/m3) to a depth of 2 m
subjected to a surface pressure of 50 kPa. What is the pressure at the bottom of the vessel?
(74.68 Pa)

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U5 An open tank contains 10 m of water covered with 1 m of oil (s = 0.8). What is the gauge
pressure at: i) the interface between the two fluids, and ii) the bottom of the tank?
(7.85 kPa; 105.9 kPa)
F&F3.1 A pressure gauge located at an elevation of 4.8 m on the side of a storage tank containing
oil reads 34.7 kPa. Another gauge at an elevation of 2.2 m reads 57.5 kPa. Compute the
specific weight, density and specific gravity of the oil.
(8.77 kN/m3; 894 kg/m3; 0.894)
U6 A submarine is situated 1000 m below sea level. The pressure inside the submarine is
controlled. If water inside the submarine boils at a temperature of 90°C, what is the
pressure difference between the inside and outside of the submarine? Take the density of
sea water as 1 023 kg/m3.
(10.07 MPa)
U7 If the pressure in a tank is 500 kPA. Find the equivalent pressure head of a) water b)
mercury and c) heavy fuel oil with a specific gravity of 0.92.
(51 m, 3.7 m, 55.4 m)
U8 A closed vessel containing oil with a density of 830 kg/m3 under pressure is shown below.
The space above the oil is pressurised to 35 kPa above atmospheric pressure. Find the
elevation of the oil surface in the attached tube.
(6.3 m)

U9 An open tube is attached to a tank as shown below. If the water rises to a height of 800
mm in the tube, what are the pressures pA and pB of the air above the water? Neglect
capillary effects.
(3.92 kPa, 4.90 kPa)

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F&F3.4.2 A pressure gauge is connected to a tank filled with fluid under standard sea level
conditions. The gauge shows a reading of 305 kPa. The gauge is then enclosed in a
chamber as shown below, and the absolute pressure head in the chamber reduced to
100 mm Hg (the fluid pressure remains unchanged). What will the reading on the pressure
gauge now be?
(393 kPa)

U10 What is the atmospheric pressure if a mercury barometer reads 742 mm?
(99 kPa)
U11 A piezometer is attached to the top of a pressure vessel with a pressure of 25 kPa. If the
vessel is filled with a fluid that has a specific gravity of 1.85, how high would the fluid rise
in the piezometer?
(1.38 m)
U12 Calculate the pressure pa in the figure below if the specific gravity of the oil is 0.82.
(8.73 kPa)

U13 A mercury manometer is used to measure the pressure in a vessel containing water as
shown in the figure below. The following measurements were taken: h1 = 300mm and
h2 = 150mm.
a) What is the pressure in the vessel at its centre (point A) based on the measured
values?
b) If the diameter of the pressure vessel is 2m, what is the pressure at its lowest point?
c) It is later discovered that an air bubble with an effective height of 10 mm was
trapped in the water held in the left leg of the manometer when the readings were
taken. Calculate the corrected pressure in the container if this bubble is taken into
consideration.
(38.4 kPa, 48,2 kPa, 38.5 kPa)

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U14 In the figure below, the liquid at A and B is water and the manometer liquid is oil with s =
0.80, h1 = 300 mm, h2 = 200 mm, and h3 = 600 mm.
a) Determine the difference between the pressures at A and B.
b) If pB = 50 kPa and the barometer reading is 730 mm Hg, find the absolute pressure at A
in meters of water.
(-1.37 kPa, 14.9 m abs)

U15 Calculate the pressure at A in the figure below. Express the answer as both a gauge and
absolute pressure.
(-12.8 kPa, 88.44 kPa)

F&F3.5.11 Two vessels are connected to a differential manometer using mercury (s = 13.56), the
connecting tube being filled with water. The higher-pressure vessel is 1.5 m lower than the
other. Everything is at room temperature. If the mercury reading is 100 mm, what is the
difference in the pressure in metres of water and kPa? If carbon tetrachloride (s = 1.59)
were used instead of mercury, what would the manometer reading be for the same pressure
difference?
(2.76 m, 27.0 kPa, 2.13 m of carbon tetrachloride)

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CM&B:1.1 A pipe contains oil (density = 850 kg/m3) at a gauge pressure of 200 kN/m3. Calculate the
piezometric pressure head in terms of a) the oil, and b) in terms of water.
(24 m, 20.4 m)
CM&B:1.2 A sloping tube manometer has the capacity for a maximum scale reading Rp = 150 mm. If
it is to measure a maximum pressure of 400 kN/m2, what must be the angle θ at which the
tube is set? Assume a fixed zero position. The gauge fluid has a density of 1800 kg/m3.
(8.69o)
CM&B:1.3 For the manometer described in CM&B:1.2, the horizontal cross-section of the tank is 40
times that of the tube cross-section. What is the percentage error in the indicated pressure
reading due to the fall in the level in the tank?
(16.5%)
CM&B:1.4 A mercury manometer is connected to a flow meter in a pipeline. The gauge pressure at
Point 1 is 38 kN/m2 and at Point 2 the vacuum pressure is -50 kN/m3. The fluid in the
pipeline is water. Calculate the manometer reading Rp.
(712 mm)

CM&B:1.5 An inverted tube has its upper end sealed and the air has been evacuated to give a vacuum.
The lower end is open and stands in a bath of mercury. If the air pressure is 101.5 kN/m2
what will be the height of mercury in the tube?
(760 mm)

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CM&B:1.6 A gas holder is sited at the foot of a hill and contains gas at an absolute pressure of
103,000 N/m2. If the atmospheric pressure is 101,500, calculate the gauge pressure in head
of water. The gas holder supplies gas through a main pipeline whose highest point is 150
m above the gas holder. What is the gauge pressure at this point? Take the density of air
as 1.21 kg/m3 and the density of gas as 0.56 kg/m3.
(153 mm of water, 250 mm of water)