The design of the center of pressure apparatus with demonstration

Abstract

In this project, the design of the center of pressure apparatus is attained to determine the static hydrostatic force exerted by a fluid on a submerged surface. It is also to perform a comparison of the measured magnitude and position of this experimental hydrostatic force with the theoretical one. One of the main goals of this research is to figure out the resultant hydrostatic force applied on a submerged surface. Moreover, it is to find out the experimental and theoretic center of pressure. The design of the center of pressure is completed with a demonstration for both two cases (partially submerged water surface and for the fully submerged plane area). The relationship between the theoretic hydrostatic force and experimental hydrostatic force is represented. In addition, the correlation between the experimental center of pressure and the theoretical center of pressure is demonstrated too. The results showed that there is a linear relationship between theoretic and experimental hydrostatic pressure force for the partly submerged surface and for the fully submerged surface plane is also linear too. The hypothetical forces compared to the calculated force were approximately comparable with a percent error of nearly 11%. However, the error in the distance to the center of pressure in comparison with the theoretical one was obviously high. Moreover, the correlation between hydrostatic force and the normal depths for partially submerged surface plane shows a power model with R2 is equal to 1. Otherwise, the model is linear for the correlation between theoretical hydrostatic force and the average depths for a fully submerged surface. Finally, it was found that the depth of immersion affects the center of the pressure system. For instance, the water level increased, the center of pressure is increasing too. But, the center of area is constant. Different fluids represent different results in both theoretical and experimental hydrostatic force and in the correlation between the depths of immersion and the theoretical hydrostatic force. This is related to the fluid properties such as viscosity, weight density, mass density, and others. To sum up, the errors existed in these analyses which could be related to the errors in measuring and reading, in the level of water, errors due to unbalanced weights.