ENG243 FLUID MECHANICS

TRIAL EXAMINATION
SEMESTER 1
YEAR 2006
LECTURER Jim Mitroy
SCHOOL Engineering and Logistics

TIME (in minutes): Time for reading [10 minutes]

Time for working [180 minutes]
TOTAL TIME [190 minutes]

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

1. A score of 160 marks is regarded as being a perfect score and a score of 80 marks is
regarded as a passing score for this examination. You should answer enough questions
so that the potential marks sum to a number that is greater than or equal to 160.
2. This examination contains 3 Sections, Sections A, B and C. You can answer ANY
combination of questions from Sections A, B or C with one restriction. The total number
marks you can be awarded from the questions in Sections A and B cannot exceed 130
marks.
3. There are TEN (10) questions (4 marks each) in Section A. The suggested time
allocation for any question in Section A is 4 minutes.
4. There are EIGHT (8) questions (15 marks each) in Section B. The suggested time
allocation for any question in Section B is 15 minutes.
5. There are TWO (2) questions (30 marks each) in Section C. The suggested time
allocation for any question in Section C is 30 minutes. The questions in Section C are
much more difficult than those in Section B.

PERMITTED MATERIALS
• Calculator (any type), Formula sheet (provided with examination paper)

EXAM BOOKLETS/MULTIPLE CHOICE ANSWER SHEETS

• 1 x 20 page exam booklet

EXAMINATION PAPERS MAY LEAVE THE EXAMINATION ROOM

Good luck!
 SECTION A
There are TEN (10) questions in this section. Each question is worth FOUR (4) marks.

1. What is the pressure at the bottom on the sea-bed 18.0 m below the surface?

2. Under what circumstances do you think it would be a good idea to use a fluid with a high
specific gravity such as mercury as the working fluid in a manometer?

3. The diagram to the right shows

water leaving a container. What is
the exit velocity of the water?

4. Carbon Dioxide gas (CO2) at a pressure(abs) of 180 kPa and at a temperature of 350 K
is flowing along a circular pipe of radius 0.20 m at 3.0 m/s. What are the mass and
volume flow rates of the gas down the pipe? The gas constant for Carbon Dioxide is R*
= 188.9 J/(kgK).

5. A wooden cube with a specific gravity of 0.90 and side length 0.120 m is placed into a
bucket of water and floats upright with its sides in a horizontal or vertical orientation.
What is the mass of the cube, what is the buoyancy force acting on the cube and how
much of the cube projects above the surface?

6. The volume flow-rate for a fluid moving along a pipe can be measured with a Venturi
constriction. A student in an ENG243 exam has derived the following expression for the
flow-rate, Q, is given by the equation

A2 2∆p
Q=
ρ (
1 − ( A2 / A1 ) 2 ),
where A1 and A2 are the pipe areas at the wide part of the pipe and the constriction
respectively, ρ is the mass density and ∆p is the pressure drop between the wide part of
the tube and the constriction. Is this equation dimensionally consistent?

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 2 of 11

7. Water with a viscosity of 1.12×10-3 Ns/m2 flows slowly along a glass tube of diameter
40.0 mm at a flow velocity of 150 mm/sec. Would the flow be laminar or turbulent?

8. What is the pressure at the nose point of the submarine shown in the diagram below?

You may assume the submarine is travelling in salt-water.

9. Water flows steadily down a channel and experiences a hydraulic jump. Its velocity in
the x-direction given by

v(x) = 1.60 m/s 0.0 < x < 4.0 m

v(x) = 2.00 - 0.10 x 4.0 < x < 8.0 m
v(x) = 1.20 m/s x > 8.0 m

What is the horizontal acceleration of the water for 4.0 < x < 8.0 m?

10. Water is flowing along a pipe at a velocity of 0.80 m/s. What would be the difference in
pressure between the inlet and outlet of a half-open gate valve with a loss coefficient of
KL = 2.0?

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 3 of 11

 SECTION B

There are EIGHT (8) questions in this section and each question is worth FIFTEEN (15) marks.
The total number of marks you can be awarded from the questions in Sections A and B cannot
exceed 130 marks.

11. Discuss the following concepts or objects (using equations where relevant) and make a
reference to at least one real-world situation where they have relevance.

(a) Buckinghams’s Pi theorem.

(b) Cavitation and Vapour pressure

(c) Capilliarity

12. The diagram below shows the schematics of a dam wall. Determine the net Force
acting on the dam wall given that dam is 40.0 m wide and rectangular in shape. Also
determine the center of pressure for the dam wall. Draw a diagram clearly showing the
center of pressure and the direction of the pressure force.

The centroid of a right angle triangle is located one third of the distance from the base to the
apex.

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 4 of 11

13. Water is discharged from a reservoir through a turbine at a rate of 1.00 m3/s?

The pressure at gauge p4 reads close to 0 kPa. The height of the water surface above
the outlet is h = 16.0 m. Given that the total head loss of the system is 1.4 m, how much
work is being done by the water as it passes through the system. Give both W& and w.
Also determine the reading on the p3 pressure gauge assuming the head losses all occur
downstream of the pressure gauge.

14. Water flows through drawn copper tubing of diameter 1.0 cm with roughness 0.0015 mm
at a rate of 0.80×10-4 m3/s. The water temperature is 50 oC and the viscosity of water at
this temperature is 0.60×10-3 Ns/m2. The kinetic energy factor for a threaded return
bend is 1.5.

What is the pressure drop between the inlet and the outlet for the pipe configuration
shown in the above diagram?

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 5 of 11

15. The diagram shown to the right shows
two pipes containing water connected
by a U-tube manometer.

The gauge pressure in pipe A has been

measured to be 60 kPa. What is the
water pressure in pipe B?

16. A Venturi meter consists of a tapered constriction in a tube with pressure gauges to
measure the pressures at positions (1) and (2).

Show that the flow rate for a fluid going down the tube is

2∆p
Q = A2
(
ρ 1 − ( A2 / A1 ) 2 ),
Where ∆p is the pressure difference between points (1) and (2) and A1 and A2 are the
cross sectional areas at points (1) and (2) and ρ is the fluid density. The right-hand side
of this expression is often multiplied by a correction factor to take real world effects such
as turbulence or viscosity into consideration. Is the correction factor greater than or
smaller than 1?

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 6 of 11

17. A hydraulic dredge is used to dredge sand from a river bottom. The sand/water slurry
being pumped by the dredge has a specific gravity of SG = 1.20. The end of nozzle
pumping the slurry onto the shore is 3.0 ft above the water level.

What thrust is required by the propeller to hold the dredge stationary?

18. The pressure rise, ∆p across a centrifugal pump from a given manufacture can be
expected to depend on the angular velocity of the impeller ω, the Diameter D, of the
impeller, the volume flow-rate Q, and the density of the fluid, ρ. By using the method of
repeating variables show that

∆p  Q 
= G 3 
ρω D
2 2
 ωD 

A model pump having an impeller

diameter of 0.200 m is tested in the
laboratory using water. The pressure
rise when tested at an angular velocity
of 40π rad/sec is shown on the graph.

What would be the pressure rise for a

geometrically similar pump with an
impeller diameter of 0.30 m used to
pump water operating at an angular
velocity of 80π rad/sec and at a flow
rate of 0.060 m3/s?

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 7 of 11

 SECTION C
There are THREE (3) questions in this Section. Each question is worth THIRTY (30) marks.
The questions in this Section are considerably more difficult than the questions in Section C.
Relatively few marks are given for partial solutions in this section.

19. The diagram below shows a pumping system to pump water to an elevated tank. The
next page shows the performance curve of a specific type of centrifugal pump.

The loss factors at the inlet and outlet are 0.5 and 1.5 respectively while the loss factor
associated with the bend is 1.5. The diameter of the pipe is 0.050 m while the total pipe
length is 400 m. In order to simplify the calculation you can assume that the friction
factor is f = 0.036. Determine the duty point of this pumping system and thus determine
the flow rate of the pump for an impeller diameter of 140 mm? Also determine the shaft
power of the pump and give an estimate of the pumps efficiency at the duty point.

Given that the pump is located 1.80 m above the water surface (1), and the pipe length
from inlet to pump is 6.0 m, determine the NPSHA at the pump and state whether
cavitation is likely to occur.

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 8 of 11

19. (continued)

Pump curve for question 19.

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 9 of 11

20. A barge designed to carry grain along a canal can be assumed to have uniform density
with a specific gravity of 0.70. The barge is 20.0 m long and can be regarded as having
a distance from keel to top of 3.60 m.

What is the minimum width of the barge

for it to be stable against capsizing in its
roll direction?

21. The diagram to the right shows a turbine

connected to the base of a dam. The turbine
generates energy by converting the kinetic
energy of water passing through the turbine to
electrical energy. The energy extracted per
unit mass is largest (i.e. w) when the velocity
drop between the turbine inlet and outlet is
largest. However, a slow velocity at outlet also
means that relatively little water may be flowing
through the turbine and the net power being
generated (i.e. W& ) may be small.

The inlet and outlet to the turbine have a

common diameter of D. Use the energy and
continuity equations to show that the turbine
generates maximum power when the outlet
velocity,
2gH
v=
3
Give an explicit expression for the maximum
power generated by the turbine.

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 10 of 11

ANSWERS
1. 181.8 kPa

2. Read notes

3. 6.26 m/s

4. Q = 0.377 m3/s ; 0.456 kg/s

5. 15.24 N ; 0.012 m of cobe above surface

6. Not dimensionally consistent

7. Re = 5700 turbulent

8. 518.0 kPa (gauge)

9. ax = 0.01x – 0.20 m/s

10. 640 Pa

12. 4.02×106 N , 1.33 above base of dam

13. hshaft = -5.0 m ; wshaft = -49 J/kg ; W& shaft = – 44100 J/s

14. 1.01 m/s , 1.265 m, 12.5 kPa

15. pB = 83680 Pa.

16. Read notes

17. Fprop = 2.53×104 N (to the right)

18. Use Qmod = 0.0089 m3/s ; 297 kPa

19. hsys = 3.6 + 3.85×106Q2 (in m3/s) ; hsys = 3.6 + 0.297Q2 (in m3/s)

ENG243 Examination: Semester 1, 2006 Page 11 of 11