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PRACTICE PROBLEMS-
HYDROSTATICS

By
Dr. F.D. Mwale / Sylvester Richard Chikabvumbwa
MUBAS, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineer-
ing .
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 APPROACH TO PROBLEMS
 ALWAYS sketch (No sketch, No communication)
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 Label starting points (Communicate with the exam-

iner)
 Give reasons for the steps you have used
 Highlight or Use symbols first then substitute values
later
 Do not round off too quickly to avoid over-estimating
your answer
 Remember to communicate when solving problems.

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 ATTEMPT PROBLEMS INDIVIDU-
ALLY AND AS A GROUP
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Check Reference books for more Prob-

lems

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 QUESTION 1
 A concrete dam of width 15 m has the cross-sec-
tional profile shown in Figure 1. Calculate the magni-
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tude in Newtons and direction of action of the resul-

tant force exerted by the water on the dam.

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 QUESTION 2
 Figure 2 shows a gate hinged at its bottom and held
by a simple support at its top. The gate separates
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two fluids. Compute: a) the net force on the gate

due to the fluid on each side b) The force on the
hinge c) The force on the support .

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 QUESTION 3
 Gate AB in Figure 3 is 1.2 m long and 0.8 m into
the paper. Neglecting atmospheric pressure, com-
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pute the force F on the gate and its center-of-pres-

sure position X

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 QUESTION 5
 The tank in Fig.4 has a 4-cm-diameter plug at the
bottom on the right. The plug will pop out if the hy-
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drostatic force on it is 25 N. For this condition, what

will be the reading h on the mercury
manometer on the left side?

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 QUESTION 7
 Gate AB in Fig.6 is semicircular, hinged at B, and
held by a horizontal force P at A. What force P is re-
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quired for equilibrium?

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 QUESTION 8
 A sluice gate is in the form of a circular arc of radius
6m as shown in Fig. 9. Calculate the magnitude and
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direction of the resultant force on the gate, and the

location with respect to O of a point on its line of ac-
tion .

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 University of Malawi

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