Ship Stability

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WHAT IS SHIP
STABILITY ?

The ability of the object or vessel

to float free on the water surface
without sinking and gravitational
force acting on it is grater than
that of buoyancy force acting on
it is called stability of the ship.

Objectives

Archimedes Principle

Terminology of ships hydrostatics

Metacenter, Center of Gravity, Center of

Buoyancy, couple etc.

Stability curves

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

Archimedes Principle

Ship sinks until weight of water

displaced by the underwater volume
is less to the weight of the ship.

Forces of gravity:

Forces of buoyancy: B =

Wship =

Vdisplaced

water

G = mshipg =Wship
Vdisplaced

water

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

Center of Buoyancy (B):

Changes position
G with movement of ship
-> underwater geometric center moves
Also affected by displacement

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

Define as 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

Metacentric height

Ships Metacentric
height is define as
distance from
center of gravity
(G) to the
metacenter is
known as the
ships
METACENTRIC
HEIGHT(GM)

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
Plot GZ (righting arm) vs. angle of heel

Plot GZ (righting arm) vs. angle of heel

When a series of values for GZ at

successive angles of heel are plotted on a
graph which result in STABILITY CURVE

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

Stability Curve

Conclusi
on

Ship stability normally refers to the ability of a

floating vessel to resists the overturning forces
encountered in the course of its operations.
Which is arise from weather, wind, waves etc.
Stability calculations solves this forces and apply
them in a practical way to a mathematical model
of the ship so that the response of the vessel can
be examined for various magnitudes of
overturning.

Questions
?