MEASUREMENT

OF THE
CE 121 –
FLUID
STABILITY OF
MECHANICS FLOATING
BODIES
Presented by: Ernesto B. Lim, Jr., CE,MP,ME1
 MEASUREMENT OF THE STABILITY OF
FLOATING BODIES
 Engineers need to calculate whether
an object will tip over or remain in an
upright position when placed in a
liquid (e.g., for the design of ships and
buoys). Th us, stability is presented in
this section.
 IMMERSED BODIES

 When a body is completely immersed in a liquid,

its stability depends on the relative positions of
the center of gravity of the body and the centroid
of the displaced volume of fluid, which is called
the center of buoyancy.
 FLOATING BODIES

 The question of stability is more involved for

floating bodies than for immersed bodies because
the center of buoyancy may take different
positions with respect to the center of gravity,
depending on the shape of the body and the
position in which it is floating.
 FLOATING BODIES
 For example, consider the cross section
of a ship shown in Fig. a. Here, the
center of gravity G is above the center of
buoyancy C. Therefore, at first glance it
would appear that the ship is unstable
and could flip over. However, notice the
position of C and G after the ship has
taken a small angle of heel. As shown in
Fig. b, the center of gravity is in the
same position, but the center of
buoyancy has moved outward from the
center of gravity, thus producing a
righting moment. A ship having such
characteristics is stable.
 FLOATING BODIES
 The reason for the change in the center
of buoyancy for the ship is that part of
the original buoyant volume, as shown by
the wedge shape AOB, is transferred to a
new buoyant volume EOD.
 Because the buoyant center is at the
centroid of the displaced volume, it
follows that for this case the buoyant
center must move laterally to the right.
 The point of intersection of the lines of
action of the buoyant force before and
after heel is called the metacenter (M),
and the distance GM is called the
metacentric height.
 FLOATING BODIES

 MBo = I / Vsin = I / V
Where: I = moment of inertia of the object with respect to the axis of rotation

V = Displaced Volume of the object.

The direct measure of stability of floating bodies is the term MG called, the Metacentric Height.

 MG = MBo ± GBo (use + if G lies below Bo)

Note:

 *If MG is positive, stable floating

 *If MG is negative, unstable Floating

 *If MG is 0, neutral equilibrium

 FLOATING BODIES

 For Rectangular Parallelepiped Bodies:

𝑩𝟐 𝐭𝐚𝐧𝟐 𝜽
 𝑴𝑩𝒐 = (𝟏 + )
𝟏𝟐𝑫 𝟐
SAMPLE PROBLEM 1
 A solid cylindrical wooden float has a specific gravity of
0.80. Can it float upright in water if r = 0.5H and H is
the overall height? If it can’t float upright, then what
would be the maximum height of this cylinder for it to
just float upright in water? if the radius of the cylinder is
30 cm. Ans. Hmax = 53.03cm
SAMPLE PROBLEM 2
 The waterline section of a 1500kN barge is as
shown. Its center of gravity is 1.5m above the
center of buoyancy. Compute the initial
metacentric height against rolling. Ans. 2.924m
SAMPLE PROBLEM 3
 A rectangular scow 9m wide, 15m long, and 3.6m high has a
draft is sea water (s=1.03) of 2.4m. Its center of gravity is
2.70m above the bottom of the scow. Determine the following:

 (1)the initial metacentric height.

 (2)the metacentric height when the scow tilts until one side is
just on the point of submergence.

 (3)the righting or overturning moment for the case of part 2

above. Hint: RM = (W)(MG)(sin)

Ans. 1.3125m ; 1.412m ; 1191kN-m