GATE Mechanical Engineering (ME) 2016 Shift 2 Solved Paper

Consider a frictionless, massless and leak-proof plug blocking a rectangular hole of dimensions 2R × L at the bottom of an open tank as shown in the figure. The head of the plug has the shape of a semi-cylinder of radius R. The tank is filled with a liquid of density ρ up to the tip of the plug. The gravitational acceleration is g. Neglect the effect of the atmospheric pressure.

The force F required to hold the plug in its position is