Stability of a Floating Body

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Stability of a Floating Body

Contents !. #ntroduction !.! %escription of Apparatus !.& 'heory of Stability of a (loating )ody !.$ #nstallation #nstructions !.* ,outine -are and .aintenance &. Experimental /rocedure $. ,esults and -alculations $ $ * + + 0 !!

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Stability of a Floating Body Section 1.0 Introduction 'he 1uestion of the stability of a body, such as a ship, which floats in the surface of a li1uid, is one of obvious importance. 2hether the e1uilibrium is stable, neutral or unstable is determined by the height of its gravity, and in this experiment the stability of a pontoon may be determined with its centre of gravity at various heights. A comparison with calculated stability may also be made. 1.1 Description of Apparatus

Fig. 1 Arrangement of floating pontoon 'he arrangement of the apparatus is shown in (igure !. A pontoon of rectangular form floats in water and carries a plastic sail, with five rows of 34slots at e1ui4spaced heights on the sail. 'he slots centres are spaced at 0.5mm intervals, e1ually disposed about the sail centre line. An ad6ustable weight, consisting of two machined cylinders which can be screwed together, fits into the 34slots on the sail this can be used to change the height of the centre of gravity and the angle of list of the pontoon. A plumb bob is suspended from the top centre of the sail and is used in con6unction with the scale fitted below the base of the sail to measure the angle of list.

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Stability of a Floating Body 1.2 T eory of Stability of a Floating Body

!a"

!b" Fig. 2 Deri#ation of Stability of Floating $ontoon

!c"

-onsider the rectangular pontoon shown floating in e1uilibrium on an even keel, as shown in the cross section of (igure &7a8. 'he weight of the floating body acts vertically downwards through its centre of gravity 9 and this is balanced by an e1ual and opposite buoyancy force acting upwards through the centre of buoyancy ), which lies at the centre of gravity of the li1uid displace by the pontoon. 'o investigate the stability of the system, consider a small angular displacement :; from the e1uilibrium position as shown on (igure &7b8. 'he center of gravity of the li1uid displaced by the pontoon shifts from ) to )!. 'he vertical line of action of the buoyant force is shown on the figure and intersects the extension of line )9 at ., the metacentre. 'he e1ual and opposite forces through 9 and ) ! exert a couple on the pontoon, and provided that . lies above 9 7as shown in (igure &7b88 this couple acts in the sense of restoring the pontoon to even keel, i.e. the pontoon is stable. #f, however, the metacentre . lies below the centre of gravity 9, the sense of the couple is to increase the angular displacement and the pontoon is unstable. 'he special case of neutral stability occurs when . and 9 coincide. (igure &7b8 shows clearly how the metacentric height 9. may be established experimentally using the ad6ustable weight <of mass =8 to displace the centre of gravity sideways from 9. Suppose the ad6ustable weight is moved a distance :x from its central position. #f the weight of the whole floating assembly is 2, then the -orresponding movement of the centre of gravity of the whole in a direction parallel to the base of the pontoon is :x!. #f this movement produces a new e1uilibrium position at an angle of W list :;, 'hen in (igure &7b8, 9! is the new position of the centre of gravity of the whole, i.e. GG! =

x! W
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7!8

Stability of a Floating Body

Now, from the geometry of the figure> 99! ? 9. @ :; Eliminating 99! between these e1uations we derive> GM = or in the limit> GM = 7&8

x! W

7$8

dx! d

7*8

dx 'he matacentric height may thus be determined by measuring ! knowing = and 2. d Auite apart from experimental determinations, ). may be calculated from the mensuration of the pontoon and the volume of li1uid which it displace. ,eferring again to (igure &7b8, it may be noted that the restoring moment about ), due to shift of the centre of buoyancy to )!, is produced by additional buoyancy represented by triangle AA!- to one side of the centre line, and reduced buoyancy represented by triangle (( !- to the other. 'he element shaded in (igure &7b8 and 7c8 has and area :s in plan view and a height x:; in vertical section, so that it volume is x:s:;. 'he weight of li1uid displaced by this element is wx:s:;, where w is the specific weight of the li1uid, and this is the additional buoyancy due to the element. 'he moment of this elementary buoyancy force about ) is wx&:s:;, so that the total restoring moment about ) is given by the expression> w:;Bx&ds where the integral extends over the whole area s of the pontoon at the plane of the water surface. 'he integral may be referred to as #, where> # ? Bx&ds the second moment of area of s about the axis CC. 'he total restoring moment about ) may also be written as the total buoyancy force, w3, in which 3 is the volume of li1uid displaced by the pontoon, multiplied by the lever arm ))!. E1uating this product to the expression for total restoring moment derived above> w3 D ))! ? w:;Bx&ds substituting from E1uation 5 for the integral and using the expression> 5" 758

Stability of a Floating Body ))! @ ). D :; which follows from the geometry of (igure &7b8, leads to> BM = ! V 708 7+8

'his result, which depends only on the mensuration of the pontoon and the volume of li1uid which it displaces will be used to check the accuracy of the experiment. #t applies to a floating body of any shape, provided that # is taken about an axis through the centroid of the area of the body at the plane of the water surface, the axis being perpendicular to the place in which angular displacement takes place. (or a rectangular pontoon, ) lies at a depth below the water surface e1ual to half the total depth of immersion, and # may readily be evaluated in terms of the dimensions of the pontoon as> I = x ds =
& D E&

D E&

x & Ldx =

! LD $ !&

7F8

1.% Installation Instructions (it the sail into its housing on the pontoon and tighten the clamp screws. -heck that the plumb bob hangs vertically downwards on its cord and is free to swing across the lower scale. 1.& 'outine Care (aintenance After use, the water in the tank should be poured away and the pontoon and tank wiped dry with a lint4free cloth. 'he pontoon should never be left permanently floating in the water.

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Stability of a Floating Body Section 2.0 )*perimental $rocedure 'he total mass of the apparatus 7including the two magnetic weights and the ad6ustable weight G=H8 is stamped on a label affixed to the sail housing. 'he total mass 7m8 is the sum of all the mass values. 'he weight of the pontoon ? m x g 2hen g ? acceleration due to gravity. 'he height of the centre of gravity may be found as follows 7refer to (igure $8> 7i8 7ii8 (it the two magnetic weights to the base of the pontoon. (it the thick knotted cord, with the plumb weight, through the hole in the sail, ensuring that the plumb weight is free to hang down on the side of the sail which has the scored centre line. -lamp the ad6ustable weight into the 34slot on the centre line of the lowest raw and suspend the pontoon from the free end of the thick cord. .ark the point where the plumb line crosses the sail centre line with typists correcting fluid or a similar marking fluid. ,epeat paragraph 7iii8 for the other four rows.

7iii8

7iv8

2ith the ad6ustable weight situated in the centre of one of the rows, allow the pontoon to float in water and position the two magnetic weights on the base of the pontoon to trim the vessel. 2hen the vessel has been trimmed correctly, the ad6ustable weight may be moved to position either side of the centre line for each of the five rows. At each position the displacement can be determined by the angle the plumb line from the top of the sail makes with the scale on the sail housing.

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Stability of a Floating Body

Fig. % (et od of finding centre of gra#ity

Fig. & Standard dimensions of pontoon

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Stability of a Floating Body

Fig. + ,ariation of angle of list -it lateral position of -eig t ! eig ts s o-n are ma*imum and minimum"

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Stability of a Floating Body Section %.0 'esults and Calculations 'otal weight of floating assembly 728 Ad6ustable weight 7=8 )readth of pontoon 7%8 Iength of pontoon 7I8 Second moment of area I = LD $ !& !J !& W !J$ I V ? ? ? ? ? kg kg mm mm m*

3olume of water displaced V =

m$

Height of metacentre above centre of buoyancy BM = V LD V & LD

%epth of immersion of pontoon ?

%epth of centre of buoyancy -) ?

#t is suggested that (igure * is marked up to be referred to each time the apparatus is used. Note that when measuring the heights and y !, as it is only convenient to measure from the inside floor of the pontoon, the thickness of the sheet metal bottom should be added to and y! measurements. 'he position of 9 7and hence the value the value of 8 and a corresponding value of y was marked earlier in the experiment when the assembly was balanced. 'he height of and 9 above the base will vary with the height y of the ad6ustable weight above the base, according to the e1uation> ? y!

+A W

7<8

where A is a constant which pertains to the centre of gravity of the pontoon and the height of the ad6ustable weight. Ksing one set of results for the centre of gravity of the pontoon and the height of the ad6ustable weight, then and y! can be measured and the constant A calculated. 'his can !J"

Stability of a Floating Body then be used in calculations for subse1uent heights of and y ! which can be checked against the markings made earlier. 3alues of angles of list produced by lateral movement of the ad6ustable weight y ! should be recorded in the form of 'able !. A graph 7(igure 58 for each height y !, of lateral position of ad6ustable weight against angles of list, can then be plotted. .ote/ %ecide which side of the sail centre line is to be termed negative and then term list angles on that side negative. 0eig t of ad1ustable -eig t y1 mm !I" Angles of list for ad1ustable -eig t lateral displacement from sail centre line *1 mm 23+ 240 2&+ 2%0 21+ 0 1+ %0 &+ 40 3+

Table 1 ,alues of list angles for eig t and position of ad1ustable -eig t (rom (igure 5, for the five values of y and the corresponding values of dx !Ed; can be extracted. Ksing E1uation * values of 9. can be obtained. Ksing E1uation < and knowing the immersion depth, values of -9 can be derived. Also, since -. ? -9 L 9., values of -. can be calculated. 'he above values should be calculated and arranged in tabular form as show in 'able &. 0eig t of ad1ustable -eig t y1 mm !i" 0eig t of 5 abo#e -ater surface C5 !mm" !ii" dx! 7mm E o 8 d !iii" (etacentric eig t 5( !mm" !i#" 0eig t of ( abo#e -ater surface C( !mm" !#"

Table 2 Deri#ation of metacentric eig t from e*perimental results 'he values of dx!Ed; can now be plotted against -9, the height of 9 above the water line. Extrapolation of this plot will indicate the limiting value of -9 above which the pontoon will be unstable.

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