STUDENT CODE OF ETHIC

(SCE)
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CENTRE FOR DIPLOMA STUDIES

UTHM

I, hereby confess that I have prepared this report on my own effort. I also admit not to receive
or give any help during the preparation of this report and pledge that everything mentioned in
the report is true.

______________________
Student Signature

Name :

Matric No. :

Date :
 CENTRE FOR DIPLOMA STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING LABORATORY

REPORT
SUBJECT CODE

TEST CODE & TITLE MMB 03 / THE STABILITY OF A FLOATING BODY

COURSE CODE

TESTING DATE

STUDENT NAME

GROUP

1.

2.

GROUP MEMBER NAMES 3.

4.

5.

LECTURER/
INSTRUCTOR/ TUTOR
NAME

REPORT RECEIVED DATE

MARKS
* Please refer laboratory
rubric attached

EXAMINER COMMENT RECEIVED STAMP

1.0 OBJECTIVE

DETERMINATION OF CENTRE GRAVITY AT DIFFERENT LEVEL ON A FLOATING BODY

2.0 LEARNING OUTCOME

At the end of this experiment, students are able to:

To identify the forces acting on floating body.

To calculate the position of the metacentre. and predict the result of the stability.
To describe the movement of the floating body according to the weight and forces acts to
the pontoon.

3.0 THEORY OF THE EXPERIMENT

When designing a vessel such as a ship, which is to float on water, it is clearly necessary to be able to
establish beforehand that it will float upright in stable equilibrium. Figure 2(a) shows such a floating
body, which is in equilibrium under the action of two equal and opposite forces, namely, its weight
acting vertically downwards through its centre of gravity and the buoyancy force of equal magnitude
acting vertically upwards at the centre of buoyancy. When in equilibrium, the points G and B lie in
the same vertical line.

Figure 1: Derivation of conditions for Stability

The centre of gravity G may be shifted sideways by moving a jockey of weight (W j) across the width of
the body. When the jockey is moved a distance (xj) as shown in Figure 2(b), the centre of gravity of the
whole assembly moves to G. The distance GG, denoted by (x g) is given from the elementary static as

Wj xj
xg
W

The shift of the centre of gravity causes the body to tilt to a new equilibrium position, at a small angle
to the vertical, as shown in Fig 2(c), with an associate movement of the centre of buoyancy from B
B. The point B must lie vertically below G, since the body is in equilibrium in the tilted position. Let the
vertical line of the upthrust through B intersect the original line of upthrust BG at the point M, called the
metacentre. Accordingly, the equilibrium is stable if the metacentre lies above G. Provided that is
xg
small, the distance GM is given by: GM .

The dimension GM is called the metacentric height. In the experiment described below, it is measured
directly from the slope of a graph of xj against , obtained by moving a jockey across a pontoon. Which
GM = Wj . Xj
W Q

Determination of BM

The movement of the centre of buoyancy to B produces a moment of the buoyancy force about the
original centre of buoyancy B. To establish the magnitude of this moment, first consider the element of
moment exerted by a small element of change in displaced volume. An element of width x, lying at
distance x from B, has an additional depth .x due to the tilt of the body. So the volume V of the
element is:

V .x.Lx Lxx .

And the element of additional buoyancy force is F

wV wLxx , where W is the specific weight
of water. The element of moment about B produced by the element of force is M F .x wLx x
2

The total moment about B is obtained by integration over the whole of the plan area of the body, in the

plane of the water surface: M w Lx dx wI .
2

In this, I represents the second moment, about the axis of symmetry, of the water plane area of the
body. Now this moment represents the movement of the upthrust wV from B to B, namely wV.BB.
Equating this to the expression for M, wV .BB ' wI .

From the geometry of the figure, BB, = .BM and eliminating BB between these last 2 equations gives
I
BM as BM
V
For the particular case of a body with a rectangular planform of width D and length L, the second
3
moment, I LD . Now the distance BG may be found from the computed or measured positions of B
12
and of G, so the metacentric height GM can be calculated by the equation GM BM BG .

4.0 EQUIPMENT

1. Plastic Sail
2. Pontoon
3. Jockey Weight

Figure 2 : Pontoon
5.0 PROCEDURE

1. Measure the weight and dimension of pontoon.

2. The pontoon is suspended from a hole at one side of sail,

as indicated in figure

3. The jockey weight

is placed at such a position

on the line of symmetry as to

cause the pontoon to hang with its base roughly vertical. A

pumbline is hung from the suspension point. The height of the

centre of gravity,G of the whole suspended assembly then lies at the point where the plumbline

intersects the line of symmetry of the pontoon.

4. Measure the point G from OG. (Refer table 1)

5. Repeat step 2 to 4 for different sail.

6. With the jockey weight on the line of symmetry, small

magnetic weight are used to trim the assembly to even keel,

indicated by a zero reading on the angular scale.

7. The jockey is then moved in step across the width of the

pontoon, the corresponding angle of tilt being recorded at

each step. (Refer table 2).

8. This procedure is then repeated with the jockey traversed at a number of different heights.
6.0 RESULT & ANALYSIS

1. Recorded the data when experiment.

Weight and Dimensions of Pontoon

Weight of pontoon (excluding jockey weight), W p = 2.430 Nm

Weight of jockey, W j = 0.391 Nm

Total weight of floating assembly, W = W p + W j = 2.821 Nm

W
Pontoon displacement, V = m3
w

Breadth of Pontoon, D = 201.8 mm = 0.2018 m

Length of Pontoon, L = 360.1 mm = 0.3601 m

Area of pontoon in plane of water surface, A = L D = 7.267 x m2

LD 3
Second Moment of area, I = 2.466 x m4
12

Depth of immersion, OC=V/A = 3.88 x = 38.8 mm

Height of centre of buoyancy B above O , OB = BC = OC/2 = 19.4 mm

 2. Fill the table.

Table 1

Yj (mm) 105 165 225 285 345

OG (mm) 58.7 67.1 75.4 83.7 92.0

Table 2

Jockey Jockey Displacement from Centre, Xj (mm)

Height, yj
-45 -30 -15 0 15 30 45

316.0 -7.8 -5.2 -5 0 7.0

260.0 -86.2 -33.5 0.5 5.0 9.0

205.0 10 -76.5.7 3.5 0.5 4.0 7.5 11.0

189.0 8.5 5.5 -522.5.2 0.5 3.5 6.0 9.0

99.0 7.5 5.0 -2.0 0.5 3.0 5.5 8.0

Table 3:

Jockey Height OG (mm) Xj/ (mm/0) Metacentric BM (mm)

(mm) Height, GM (mm)

15 30 45

105 58.7 5.76 45.7 85.0

165 67.1 4.82 38.3 86.0

225 75.4 3.88 30.8 86.8

285 83.7 2.88 22.9 87.2

345 92.0 2.01 16.0 88.6

Figure 3: Determine the Centre of Gravity.

Figure 4 : Dimension of pontoon

Figure 5 : Different angle for different weight position.

(Weight shown in maximum and minimum value)

7.0 QUESTIONS

1) Discuss about the result of this experiment.

2) How would the stability of the pontoon be affected if it were floated on a liquid with a greater
density than that water?
3) In civil engineering practice, the stability of a floating body applied in many hydraulics works.
As a potential civil engineer, describe how this experiment can be applied in this field.
4) Question by lecturer

5) Question by lecturer
8.0 Answers