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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

8 Buoyancy and Stability

8.1 Archimedes Principle
= fluid weight above 2ABC fluid weight above 1ADC
= weight of fluid equivalent to body volume
In general,
(

= displaced fluid volume).

The line of action is through the centroid of the displaced

volume, which is called the center of buoyancy.
Example: Oscillating floating block
Weight of the block
is displaced water volume by the block and
specific weight of the liquid, waterline area

where
is the
.

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

Instantaneous displaced water volume:

Solution for this homogeneous linear 2nd-order ODE:

Use initial condition (

) to determine

and :

Where the angular frequency

period

Spar Buoy

We can increase period by increasing block mass

and/or decreasing waterline area
.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/com
mons/0/03/Lateral_view_of_spar-buoy.png

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Jianming Yang

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Fall 2012

8.2 Stability: Immersed Bodies

Stable

Neutral

Unstable

Condition for static equilibrium: (1) Fv=0 and (2) M=0

Condition (2) is met only when C and G coincide, otherwise we can have either a righting
moment (stable) or a heeling moment (unstable) when the body is heeled.

058:0160
Jianming Yang

Fall 2012

Chapter 2
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8.3 Stability: Floating Bodies

For a floating body the situation is slightly more complicated since the center of
buoyancy will generally shift when the body is rotated, depending upon the shape of the
body and the position in which it is floating.
The center of buoyancy (centroid of the displaced volume) shifts laterally to the right for
the case shown because part of the original buoyant volume aOc is transferred to a new
buoyant volume bOd.
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.
If GM is positive, that is, if M is above G, then the ship is stable;
however, if GM is negative, then the ship is unstable.

058:0160
Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

Consider a ship which has taken a small angle of heel

1. evaluate the lateral displacement
of the center of buoyancy,
2. then from trigonometry, we can
solve for GM and evaluate the
stability of the ship
Recall that the center of buoyancy is
at the centroid of the displaced
volume of fluid (moment of volume
about y-axis ship centerplane)
This can be evaluated conveniently as follows:

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

: moment of before heel (goes to zero due to symmetry of original buoyant

volume about centerplane)

: area moment of inertia of ship waterline about its tilt axis

This equation is used to determine the

stability of floating bodies:
If GM is positive, the body is stable
If GM is negative, the body is unstable

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

8.4 Roll
The rotation of a ship about the longitudinal
axis through the center of gravity.
Consider symmetrical ship heeled to a very
small angle . Solve for the subsequent
motion due only to hydrostatic and
gravitational forces.

Note: recall that

action of :
Angular momentum:

| | , where

is the perpendicular distance from

= mass moment of inertia about long axis through

= angular acceleration

to the line of

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

For small :

Definition of radius of gyration:

The solution to equation

is,

where

= the initial heel angle,

for no initial velocity, the natural frequency

Simple (undamped) harmonic oscillation with period of the motion:

Note that large GM decreases the period of roll, which would make for an uncomfortable
boat ride (high frequency oscillation).
Earlier we found that GM should be positive if a ship is to have transverse stability and,
generally speaking, the stability is increased for larger positive GM. However, the
present example shows that one encounters a design tradeoff since large GM decreases
the period of roll, which makes for an uncomfortable ride.

058:0160
Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

9 Case (2): Rigid Body Translation or Rotation

In rigid body motion, all particles are in combined translation and/or rotation and
there is no relative motion between particles; consequently, there are no strains or strain
rates and the viscous term drops out of the N-S equation.
from which we see that
acts in the direction of
must be perpendicular to this direction (by definition,

, and lines of constant pressure

is perpendicular to
const.).

For the general case of rigid body translation/rotation of fluid shown in the figure, if the
center of rotation is at where
, the velocity of any arbitrary point is:
where

= the angular velocity vector, and the acceleration is:

First term =
Second term =
Third term =

acceleration of
centripetal acceleration of relative to
linear acceleration of due to

Usually, all these terms are not present. In fact, fluids can rarely move in rigid body
motion unless restrained by confining walls for a long time.

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

9.1 Uniform Linear Acceleration

[
]
1.
2.

,
,

1.
2.
3.

increase in
decrease in

decrease in
and | |
,
and | |
,

Unit vector in the direction of

decrease in
increase in
:

Lines of constant pressure are perpendicular to

Angle between the surface of constant pressure and the

axes:

In general the rate of increase of pressure in the direction

[

.
is given by:

gage pressure

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Jianming Yang

Fall 2012

Chapter 2
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9.2 Rigid Body Rotation

Consider rotation of the fluid about the axis without any translation.

and

The constant is determined by specifying the pressure at one point; say,

at
(Note: Pressure is linear in and parabolic in )
Curves of constant pressure are given by:
which are paraboloids of revolution, concave upward, with their minimum points on the
axis of rotation.

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

The position of the free surface is found, as it is for linear acceleration, by conserving the
volume of fluid.
Unit vector in the direction of
|

Slope of :

( is the angle between the surface of constant

pressure and the axis)
i.e.,
(
is the equation of

)
surfaces.

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

10 Case (3): Pressure Distribution in Irrotational Flow

Potential flow solutions also solutions of NS under such conditions:
1. If viscous effects are neglected, Navier-Stokes equation becomes Euler equation:
(
)
(
2. If

)
(

Vector calculus identity:

,
(

3. Assume a steady flow:

(

Consider:
perpendicular to
, also
Stream lines :
; vortex lines :

Therefore,

perpendicular to

and

contains streamlines and vortex lines:

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

1. Assuming irrotational flow:

(everywhere same constant)
2. Unsteady irrotational flow
(

is a time-dependent constant.
Alternate derivation using streamline coordinates:

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Jianming Yang

Chapter 2
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Fall 2012

Time increment:
Space increment:
[
: local

in the direction of flow

: local

normal to the direction of flow

: convective
: normal

due to convergence/divergence of streamlines

due to streamline curvature

Euler Equation:
Steady flow -direction equation:
(

, i.e., B=const. along streamline

Steady flow -direction equation:

across streamline