Forces on a Curved Surfaces

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Force on a Curved Surface due to Hydrostatic Pressure
If the surface is curved, the forces on each element of the surface will
not be parallel (normal to the surface at each point) and must be
combined using some vectorial method
The most significant method to solve these types of problems is to
calculate the vertical and horizontal components, and then combine
these two forces to obtain the resultant force and its direction

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There are two cases:
 Case I:if the fluid is above the curved surface

• Horizontal Component, Rh
The resultant force of a fluid above a curved surface id Rh = Resultant force on
the projection of the curved surface onto a vertical plane i.e. along AC.
The force must be normal to the plane. The force will act horizontally through
the centre of pressure of the projected vertical plane.

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• Vertical component: Rv
The fluid is at rest so there are no shear forces on the vertical edges. So the vertical
component can only be due to the weight of the fluid.
Rv = weight of fluid directly above the curved surface = ρgV
acts vertically downwards through the centre of gravity of the mass of the
fluid.

• Resultant Force, R
The overall resultant force is found by
combining the vertical and horizontal
components vectorially:

R  R2h  R2v

This resultant force acts through point O

at an angle (θ) with Rh

R 
  tan 1  V 
 RH 

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• Case II: if the fluid is below the curved surface:

Vertical force component in case of fluid below

curved surface:
The force required by the curved surface to maintain
equilibrium is equal to that force which the fluid above
the surface would exert (weight
of fluid above the curved surface).

The resultant vertical force of a fluid below a curved

surface is:
Rv = Weight of the imaginary volume of fluid
vertically above the curved surface.

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Example 1:
A sluice gate is in the form of a circular arc of radius 6 m as shown in below.
Calculate the magnitude of the resultant force
Calculate the direction of the resultant force.
• Horizontal component, FH

• Vertical component, RV

• Resultant Force, R

• Direction, ϴ

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Example 2:
A dock gate 10 m wide has sea depths 6 m and 15 m on its two sides
respectively. The relative density of sea water is 1.03.
• Determine the resultant force acting on the gate due to water pressure
• Find the position of centre of pressure relative to the bottom of the gate.