Chapter 2 Hydrostatics

Hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies incompressible fluids at rest.It encompasses the study of the conditions under which fluids are at rest in stable equilibrium as opposed to fluid dynamics, the study of fluids in motion.

Stagnation is relative, indicating there is no relative motion between fluid particles which is in a relatively static or relatively balanced state.In a fluid at rest, all frictional stresses vanish.Hydrostatics focuses on the studies of the mechanical laws related to the fluids at rest.Hydrostatics elaborates the characteristics and distribution rules of hydrostatic pressure, Euler equations, calculation methods of total pressure of stationary water acting on the plane or curved surface, stability of submerged body and floating body, and so on.

Requirements:Grasp the basic concepts such as absolute pressure, relative pressure, vacuum degree, equipressure surface, piezometric head, pressure prism, center of pressure, metacenter radius and eccentricity; Know the characteristics of stress forces in a stationary fluid and the principles of hydrostatic pressure distribution;Understand the stability of submerged body and floating body; Understand the analytic methods for relative balance of liquid; Grasp the determination methods for equipressure surface, pressure distribution graph and how to plot pressure prism; Grasp the basic equations involved in hydrostatics and know how to use these equations and understand their physical meaning; Learn Euler's differential balance equation; Know how to calculate the total hydrostatic pressure acting on the plane and curved surface (analytic method and graphic method); and know how to use the fundamentals of fluid hydrostatics to solve engineering problems.