Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(WS2-01-47)
SEMESTER 3
2017/2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS i
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS i
LIST OF SYMBOLS ii
INTRODUCTION 1
THEORY OF OPERATION 1
DESCRIPTION OF EQUIPMENT 5
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 6
REFERENCES 9
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
i
LIST OF SYMBOLS
B Center of buoyancy
K Keel
KOy Mass radius of gyration of floating body about its longitudinal axis
M Transverse metacenter
m Mass
T Period of oscillation
Greek Symbols:
Density of seawater
ii
INTRODUCTION
Objectives
(b) To investigate the effects of placing a weight vertically above the C.G. on the
stability of a floating body.
(c) To investigate the effects of free surfaces on the stability of a floating body.
Scope
In this experiment, only intact static stability of a vessel at small inclination angles (
< 10) will be investigated. The theory of operation and the experimental procedure
adopted to evaluate the static stability are provided in this manual.
THEORY OF OPERATION
Referring to Figure 1, the weight W of the floating body passes through its center of
gravity G. The upthrust or buoyancy force FB acting on the floating body passes
through the center of buoyancy B, which corresponds to the centroid of the displaced
fluid. When the floating body is subjected to a small angular displacement or
perturbation about its equilibrium upright configuration, the center of buoyancy
shifts from B to B, while the center of gravity of the floating body remains
unchanged at G. A vertical line drawn upward from B intersects the line of symmetry
at M, known as the metacenter. GM is known as the metacentric height.
(a) If M is above G (GM > 0), a restoring couple acts on the floating body in its
displaced position tending to restore it to its original position. Hence, the body
is in stable equilibrium.
(b) If M is below G (GM < 0), an overturning couple acts on the body. Hence, the
body is in unstable equilibrium.
(c) If M coincides with G (GM = 0), the resultant couple is zero, and the body has
no tendency to return to, nor move further away from its original position.
Hence, the body is in neutral equilibrium.
1
Figure 1 Static stability of a floating body.
If the body floats stably, it may be shown that the period of oscillations for small
angles of displacement is given by
KOy
T 2 , (1)
g GM
where KOy is the radius of gyration of the floating body about its longitudinal axis.
Hence, larger values of GM give rise to more rapid oscillations, thus subjecting
passengers to higher levels of discomfort. However, the larger the value of GM, the
more stable the floating body is. The above are two conflicting requirements for the
choice of GM. A good design should thus entail adequate but not excessive values of
GM.
In this experiment, a mass m is moved transversely across the deck through a known
distance d, as shown in Figure 2.
2
Figure 2 Inclined experiment to determine GM and KG.
3
From geometry,
KM KB BM KG GM .
Hence,
KG KB BM GM . (3)
4
Figure 4 Effects of free surface.
It can be shown that the virtual reduction in metacentric height due to effects of the
free surface is
f i
GG2 , (4)
Vsub
where i is the second moment of area of the liquids free surface in the tank about the
tanks own centerline. Note that f is the density of the liquid in the tank. If there is
more than one tank not completely filled with liquid of density f , the second
moments of area of the liquids free surfaces due to the individual tanks will have to
be summed up.
DESCRIPTION OF EQUIPMENT
5
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
1. Ballast the barge evenly around its C.G. with the given 10 x 1 kg masses and
place the given 5 kg mass at the C.G of the barge.
2. Check that the barge is at even keel with the spirit level meter.
4. Measure the mean draught dl, and hence determine the displacement of the
barge.
Note that the length (l) of the barge is 1.0 m, whereas the width (b) of the
barge is 0.5 m.
7. Time the period of oscillation T for small heeling angles using a stopwatch
and compare the result obtained with equation (1).
Note that the radius of gyration of the barge about its longitudinal axis is
KOy 0.29 m (without the raised mass).
10. Slide and fasten the 3 kg mass along the mast vertically at a distance of about
700 mm above the deck.
6
12. Compare the values of GM and KG obtained in (6) and (9) (with and without
the raised mass) and comment on the stability of the vessel when a mass is
raised vertically above the C.G.
13. Place the 3 kg mass along the mast back to the deck of the barge and also
remove all the ballasting weights.
15. Evenly ballast the following 20 compartments of the barge with 1/2 litres of
water each, as shown in Figure 5.
17. What conclusions can be made regarding the effects of free surface on the
stability of the vessel with the same displacement and same KG of a similar
vessel?
18. Using equation (4), check the virtual reduction in metacentric height using
analytical (theoretical) calculations.
Useful information:
Length of each compartment lc 0.195 m
Width of each compartment bc 0.097 m
In the presence of the free surfaces, the radius of gyration of the barge
about its longitudinal axis is KOy 0.28 m .
7
Second moment of area of the free surface in each compartment about
1
the compartments centerline is given by i lc bc3 .
12
Note that there are a total of 20 compartments filled with water.
3. A solid cone of uniform density 0.5 floats in a liquid of density with its
axis upright and its apex submerged in the liquid. The radius and height of the
cone are R and 3R, respectively. Determine the metacentric height and analyze
the static stability of the floating cone.
REFERENCES
Rawson K. J. and Tupper E. C., Basic Ship Theory, Longman, 4th Edition, 1994.
Stokoe E. A., Reed's naval architecture for marine engineers, Thomas Reed, 4th
Edition, 1991.