Wachemo University

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Chemical Engineering

FLUID MECHANICS FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

(ChE 2206)

November 2024
27/04/2025 1
Course Information

Course Name: Fluid Mechanics for Chemical

Engineers
Course Code: ChE2206
Lesson Title: Fluid Statics

27/04/2025 2
Lesson Objectives
• This lesson is aimed to introduce the
basics of fluid statics and pressure
measurement to students. More over,
common type of manometer analysis will
be introduced in this lesson

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 Learning Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

 Define the term fluid element and fluid statics

 Understand pressure distribution on fluid at
rest and measuring it using manometers
 Pressure forces on the surfaces
 Determine buoyancy forces and its stability
 Able to solve any problems related with fluid
static
 Fluid Elements
 Defined as an infinitesimal region of the fluid continuum in
isolation from its surroundings.
Two types of forces exist on fluid elements
 Body Force: distributed over the entire mass or volume of the
element. It is usually expressed per unit mass of the element or
medium upon which the forces act.
Example: Weight of any subs., Gravitational Force, Electromagnetic
force fields etc.
 Surface Force: Forces exerted on the fluid element by its
surroundings through direct contact at the surface. Surface force
has two components:
i. Normal Force: along the normal to the area
ii. Shear Force: along the plane of the area.
 The ratios of these forces and the elemental area in the limit of the
area tending to zero are called the normal and shear stresses
respectively.
 The shear force is zero for any fluid element at rest and hence the
only surface force on a fluid element is the normal component.
 Pressure

 Pressure: - is defined as a normal force

exerted by a fluid per unit area
 Pressure applies only for fluids (liquid
and gas) as stress to solid
 The SI unit of Pressure is Pascal (pa).
 P[N/m2] = P[Pa]
 Other units of pressure:
 Absolute, Gauge and Vacuum
Pressure

1. Absolute zero pressure or absolute vacuum

pressure:
 Is the lowest possible point where pressure is Zero
(i.e. P=0[pa] or 0[atm.] or 0[bar] zero)
2. Atmospheric Pressure (1atm):
 Pressure experienced by an area due to
the force exerted by the atmosphere
 Is the pressure at sea level ( P=1atm or 101,325pa or 1.013bar)

3. Gauge pressure:
 The pressure relative to the atmospheric pressure. ( i.e. it shows how much
below or above is a pressure relative to atmospheric pressure
 Gauges measure atmospheric pressure as zero that they only take the reading
(value) above or below atmospheric pressure.
 Absolute, Gauge and Vacuum
Pressure
4. Vacuum pressure:
 Pressures below atmospheric pressure (i.e. Pressure
between absolute zero and atmospheric pressure)
 Relative to the atmospheric pressure vacuum pressures are –ve
 Relative to absolute zero or absolute vacuum pressure they are +ve

difference between
 They are measured by vacuum gauges as the

atmospheric and vacuum pressure.

 Their vacuum gauge measurement value is +ve

5. Absolute Pressure: -
 Is the actual pressure at a given position and it is
measured relative to the absolute zero or absolute
vacuum pressure.
Absolute, Gauge and Vacuum
Pressure
 Variation of Pressure with Depth

 Pressure at a point in a fluid has the

same magnitude
i. This result is applicable to fluids in
motion as well as fluids at rest.
ii. Pressure in a fluid at rest does not
change in the horizontal direction
iii. Pressure in a fluid increases with
depth due to weight of the fluid on the
above layer
Note: The above three points are called Pascal
principles
 Pressure Measurement
 Pressure of the fluid is measured by the following devices:
1. Mechanical gauges:
 Are devices used to measuring the pressure by
balancing the fluid column by spring or dead
weight.
The commonly used mechanical pressure gauges are:
 Bourdon tube pressure gauge; when the pressure acts
on an elastic structure and will deform which is related
to magnitude of pressure
 Diaphragm pressure gauges
 Dead weight pressure gauges
 Bellows pressure gauge
 Pressure Measurement
2. The Barometer
 A device which is used to measure
atmospheric pressure.
 The atmospheric pressure is referred
to as the barometric pressure
 Atmospheric pressure can be
measured by inverting a mercury-filled
tube into a mercury container that is
open to the atmosphere
PB = Patm; PC = 0 (no air)

Patm = ; h = 760mm = 760torr

If water is used h =
10.3m tube needed
 Pressure Measurement
Effect of elevation on atmospheric pressure
 Atmospheric Pressure reduces with
elevation due to weight of the air
above Altitud Patm
i. Cooking takes longer at high e [m] [kpa]
altitudes due to water boils at lower Sea level
(0) 101.325
temperature (<100 oC)
1000 89.88
ii.Nose bleeding as Pblood Vesses > Patm
2000 79.5
iii.Density of air is lower at high
5000 54.05
altitudes
 Less air and less oxygen
10000 26.5
 Tire easily and breathing problems 20000 5.53
 Car consumes more fuel
 Drag force reduces with elevation which is good for
airplanes despite fuel inefficiency
 Pressure Measurement

3. The Manometers
 A device used to measure a pressure at a point in
fluid by balancing the column of the fluid by
another column of fluid.
 Manometers can have the following kinds:
i. Simple Manometers: it consists of glass tube
having one of its end connected to the point where
pressure is to be measured.
Common types of simple manometers are:
 Piezometer,
 U-tube manometer and
 Single column manometer
i. Differential manometers
ii. Micro-manometer
iii. Inverted Tube Manometer
 Pressure Measurement
i. The Simple Manometers
 When a fluid is at rest; from , the height h can:
 Fluid column can be used to measure pressure differences
 Pressure measuring device based on this principle is
Manometer
 Manometer is a U-shaped, plastic or glass tube holding various
fluids (mercury, water, alcohol, or oil) to measure Pressure.
 The measurement is based on the facts:
1. in gases is independent of height because of
very small density
2. Pressure is the same at all points on a
horizontal plane in a given fluid at rest ( i.e. )
3. = = = pressure of gas inside the tank
4. Had the fluid inside tank been of high
density, pressure due to height of the fluid
above point 1 would have been considered
 Pressure Measurement
ii. The Manometer: Multiple immiscible
fluids
 The pressure at the bottom of
the

tank at point-1 is:
This is based on
1. The pressure change across a fluid column of
height h is:

2. Pressure increases downward in a given fluid Flow

section
and decreases upward (i.e. Pbottom > Ptop)
3.Two points at the same elevation in a continuous
fluid at rest are at the same pressure .
 To determine pressure difference between
points 1 and 2 of the lower picture is given
as:
 Pressure Measurement
ii. The Manometer: Multiple
immiscible fluids
 Find the expression for the
pressure difference between
point1 and Point 2
 = density of water
 density of oil
 density of mercury
 pressure at point 1
 pressure at point 2
 Tutorial Q 2.2
 The water in a tank is pressurized by air
as show above, and the pressure is
measured by a multi-fluid manometer.
 The tank is located on a mountain at an
altitude of 1400m where the atmospheric
pressure is 85.6 kPa.
 Determine the air pressure in the tank:
 If h1 = 0.1 m, h2 = 0.2m, and h3 = 0.35m.
 Take the densities of water, oil, and mercury
to be 1000kg/m3, 850kg/m3, and 13600 kg/m3, respectively.
 Pressure Measurement
The Manometer: Piezometer tube
 One arm containing the fluid is attached to the wall of
the conduit
 Pressure Measurement
The Manometer: U-tube manometer
 The maximum value of P1–P2 = ∆P is limited by the
height of the manometer
 To measure larger ∆P; we can choose a manometer
with greater density
 To measure smaller ∆P; we can choose a manometer
fluid which is having a density closer to the fluid
density
 Pressure Measurement
The Manometer: Inverted and inclined U-tube
manometer
 Used for measuring pressure differences in liquids
 The space above the liquid in the manometer is filled with air
which can be admitted or expelled through the tap on the top,
in order to adjust the level of the liquid in manometer
 Pressure Measurement
Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Manometer
Advantages Disadvantages
 Can measure small pressure  Not for measuring larger
difference pressure differences
 Does not have to be calibrated  Some liquids are unsuitable
against any standard; the for use
pressure difference can be  Surface tension can also
calculated from first principles causes errors due to
capillary rise; this can be
avoided if the diameters of
the tubes are sufficiently
large -preferably not less
than 15 mm diameter