THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Department of Civil Engineering

CME270 FLUID MECHANICS
ASSIGNMENT #3
Due at 17:00 on November 16th, 2016
(in the drop-box outside GB420)
Note:
1. Contact Nathan (nathan.moore@mail.utoronto.ca) for any Assignment #3 related questions and/or
appeals.
2. No late assignments will be accepted. Solutions will be posted immediately after assignments are
due. Graded assignments will be returned one week after the due date.
3. Any requests for assignment grading appeals must be emailed with a scanned copy of the
assignment page in question, a clear explanation of the suspected error and a statement of where and
why additional marks should be awarded. All appeals should be submitted to Nathan no later than
two weeks after the assignment due date.
4. Write your names and group number at the top of each answer page in case pages get separated by
mistake. Failure to do so may result in a zero grade.
Q3.1
Scientists at The Canadian Space Agency are conducting experiments with a new rocket fuel,
codenamed MP-24 (density = 0.801 g/mL), to determine its compatibility with their current
turbojet engine. For their tests, the fuel will be dispensed from a cylindrical jet towards a flowredirecting wedge, as shown in the figure below. The fuel flow is partitioned equally to each side
of the wedge. Assume that the wedge does not change the speed of the flow.

Top View
a)

If the wedge can sustain a maximum force of 542 N while still remaining stationary, what
smallest mass flux of MP-24 fuel issued from the jet will cause the wedge to move.
b) If the fuel is dispensed at 40 m/s, what force, F (in kN), must be applied to move the wedge
towards the jet at 8 m/s.

Q3.2
A coyote has strapped himself to a rocket in hopes of flying himself straight upwards to the top
of a cliff in order to catch a roadrunner. The ACME Corporation rocket is propelled by burning
fuel at a rate of 25 kg/s with an exhaust velocity of 900 m/s. The combined initial mass of the
rocket, coyote, and fuel is 400 kg. Due to a design oversight the rocket will run out of fuel after
2.5 seconds. This will remove the thrust force propelling the rocket, leaving it, and the coyote, to
fall solely under the effects of gravity. The structural integrity of the ropes holding the coyote to
the rocket is guaranteed for velocities up to a maximum of 100 m/s. Assume that drag forces on
the rocket are negligible, the exhaust velocity does not vary with time, and that the pressure of
the exhaust gas is approximately atmospheric.
a) What is the thrust acting on the rocket in kN?
b) What is the rockets initial acceleration?
c) Will the ropes holding the coyote to the rocket break?

Prof. Hofmanns note: This question violates my promise to you that in this course, we would
not use force equations where the rate of change of momentum inside the control volume is
non-zero. But I wanted to use this question anyway because my TA came up with it and it refers
to my favourite cartoon show on TV as a kid. So Im going to give you part of the answer to get
you past this. When you draw a free body diagram of the system, the equation is of the form:
( ) =
where CV is the control volume, which you should take as the rocket+coyote, and I have
assumed that upward is positive.
This equation makes sense if you think about it: the left-hand term is simply the mass and
acceleration of the control volume (the rocket+coyote), whose product is equal to the sum of all

other forces acting on the system. The left-hand term is the term that I told you to
normally ignore because it is usually zero in the textbook. So start by using this equation, filling
in the terms. If you wish, you can refer to textbook section 6.5 (page 231) for a similar example
of a rocket that is accelerating. The equation above is similar to equation 6.20.

Q3.3
A sports scientist has constructed a prototype vuvuzela in order to achieve the optimal audio
frequency for filling soccer stadiums with noise while mitigating potential hearing loss for
players and fellow spectators. Air is blown in to the inlet of the tubular instrument, and shortly
after, passes through a piezometer which measures the static pressure (gauge) of the air. A
stagnation tube is located further downstream, measuring the total pressure (gauge) at a
stagnation point in the flow. In addition, an inclinometer measures the vuvuzelas angle of
inclination towards the vertical (see Figure below). After months of tinkering the scientist has
achieved the perfect frequency using the following conditions:
a = 0.25 m
b = 0.4 m
c = 0.3 m
x = 2y
y=z

Atmospheric Pressure = 101 kPa

Piezometer Reading = 16 mm H2O
Stagnation Tube Reading = 24 mm H2O
= 45
Air Temperature = 20C

a) At what velocity must air be blown in to the inlet to achieve the perfect frequency?
b) If the piezometer and stagnation tube were replaced by a pitot-static probe (a gauge designed
to measure the difference between total and static pressure) placed at the original location of
the stagnation tube, what would its reading have been under the same ideal conditions (in
P)?

Q3.4
Water is dispensed from a D = 10 cm diameter hose on to the horizontal blade shown in the
figure below. What is the magnitude (in kN) and direction (in degrees from the horizontal) of the
force required to keep the blade stationary if the internal angle of the blade is 30 and the
velocity of the water leaving the jet is v = 100 m/s. Assume that there are no energy losses in this
system.

Top View