Stability & Buoyancy

Objectives

Principles of Stability Archimedes Principle Terminology of ships hydrostatics Stability & moments -> staying upright Metacenter, Center of Gravity, Center of Buoyancy, etc. Stability curves

Principles of Stability

Floating object is acted on by forces of gravity and forces of buoyancy Static equilibrium SFi = 0

Three conditions of static equilibrium:

Stable: return to same position if tipped

Neutral: when rotated, will come to rest in any position

Unstable: will come to rest in new position if force acts on it

Archimedes Principle

Law: a body floating or submerged in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the water it displaces Depth to which ship sinks depends on density of water (r = 1 ton/35ft3 seawater)

Archimedes Principle

Ship sinks until weight of water displaced by the underwater volume is equal to the weight of the ship

Forces of gravity: Forces of buoyancy:

G = mshipg =Wship B = rwaterVdisplaced

Wship = rwaterVdisplaced

Archimedes Principle

Forces act everywhere on ship -> too tough to analyze Center of Gravity (G): all gravity forces as one force acting downward through ships geometric center Center of Buoyancy (B): all buoyancy forces as one force acting upward through underwater geometric center

Archimedes Principle

Center of Gravity (G):

Changes position only by change/shift in mass of ship Does not change position with movement of ship
G with movement of ship -> Changes position underwater geometric center moves Also affected by displacement

Center of Buoyancy (B):

Hydrostatics Terminology

Displacement: total weight of ship = total submerged volume of ship (measured in tons) Draft: vertical distance from waterline to keel at deepest point (measured in feet) Reserve Buoyancy: volume of watertight portion of ship above waterline (important factor in ships ability to survive flooding) Freeboard: vertical distance from waterline to main deck (rough indication of reserve buoyancy)

Hydrostatics Terminology

As draft & displacement increase, freeboard and reserve buoyancy decrease

Moments

Defn: tendency of a force to produce rotation or to move an object about an axis

Distance between the force and axis of rotation is the moment arm

Couple: two forces of equal magnitude in opposite and parallel directions, separated by a perpendicular distance

G and B are a couple

Moments

Depending on location of G and B, two types of moments:

Righting moment: tends to return ship to upright position Upsetting moment: tends to overturn ship

Magnitude of righting moment:

RM = W * GZ (ft-tons) GZ: moment arm (ft)

Metacenter

Defn: the intersection of two successive lines of action of the force of buoyancy as ship heels through small angles (M)

If angle too large, M moves off centerline

Metacenter

Metacentric Height (GM)

Determines size of righting/upsetting arm (for angles < 7o) GZ = GM*sinf Large GM -> large righting arm (stiff) Small GM -> small righting arm (tender)

Metacenter

Relationship between G and M

G under M: ship is stable G = M: ship neutral G over M: ship unstable

STABLE

UNSTABLE

Metacenter v. Stability Curves

At this point, we could use lots of trigonometry to determine exact values of forces, etc for all angles -> too much work GM used as a measure of stability up to 7, after that values of GZ are plotted at successive angles to create the stability curve

Stability Curve

Stability Curve

Plot GZ (righting arm) vs. angle of heel

Ships G does not change as angle changes Ships B always at center of underwater portion of hull Ships underwater portion of hull changes as heel angle changes GZ changes as angle changes

Questions?