5 ■ BUOYANCY AND STABILITY

Buoyant force: The upward force a fluid exerts on a body immersed in it.
The buoyant force is caused by the increase of pressure with depth in a fluid.

The buoyant force acting on

the plate is equal to the
weight of the liquid
displaced by the plate.
For a fluid with constant
density, the buoyant force is
independent of the distance of
the body from the free surface.
It is also independent of the
density of the solid body.

A flat plate of uniform thickness h submerged

in a liquid parallel to the free surface.
 The buoyant forces acting on a
solid body submerged in a fluid and
on a fluid body of the same shape
at the same depth are identical.
The buoyant force FB acts upward
through the centroid C of the
displaced volume and is equal in
magnitude to the weight W of the
displaced fluid, but is opposite in
direction. For a solid of uniform
density, its weight Ws also acts
through the centroid, but its
magnitude is not necessarily equal
to that of the fluid it displaces.
(Here Ws > W and thus Ws > FB;
this solid body would sink.)

Archimedes’ principle: The buoyant force acting

on a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight
of the fluid displaced by the body, and it acts upward
through the centroid of the displaced volume.
For floating bodies, the weight of the entire body must be equal to the
buoyant force, which is the weight of the fluid whose volume is equal to the
volume of the submerged portion of the floating body:

A solid body dropped

into a fluid will sink,
float, or remain at rest
at any point in the
fluid, depending on its
average density
relative to the density
of the fluid.
The altitude of a hot air
balloon is controlled by the
temperature difference
between the air inside and
outside the balloon, since
warm air is less dense than
cold air. When the balloon
is neither rising nor falling,
the upward buoyant force
exactly balances the
downward weight.
 Stability of Immersed and
Floating Bodies

Stability is easily
understood by
analyzing a ball
on the floor.

For floating bodies such as ships, stability

52
is an important consideration for safety.
A floating body possesses vertical
stability, while an immersed neutrally
buoyant body is neutrally stable since it
does not return to its original position
after a disturbance.

An immersed neutrally buoyant

body is (a) stable if the center of
gravity G is directly below the center
of buoyancy B of the body, (b)
neutrally stable if G and B are
coincident, and (c) unstable if G is
directly above B.
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 A ball in a trough
between two hills is stable
for small disturbances, but
unstable for large
disturbances.
When the center of gravity G of an immersed
neutrally buoyant body is not vertically
aligned with the center of buoyancy B of the
body, it is not in an equilibrium state and
would rotate to its stable state, even without
any disturbance.
A floating body is stable if the body is bottom-heavy and thus the center of
gravity G is below the centroid B of the body, or if the metacenter M is above
point G. However, the body is unstable if point M is below point G.

Metacentric height GM: The distance between the center of gravity

G and the metacenter M—the intersection point of the lines of action
of the buoyant force through the body before and after rotation.
The length of the metacentric height GM above G is a measure of the
stability: the larger it is, the more stable is the floating body.
The water line may be explained as the surface of the water all along the perimeter of the
floating object.
For a rectangular waterline :

Figure 5.9

Also refer to the previous chapter for more shapes, e.g. elliptical or circular. The 2nd moment
of area is determined by integration. This is easy enough for standard forms. Actual waterlines
of ships are much more complex, for ease of use a form factor is used to approximate the
actual 2nd moment of area. Now lG can be calculated as follows:

Figure 5.10
Example 5.2

A cylindrical buoy 1,37 m in diameter and 1,87 m high has a mass of 770 kg. Will this buoy
float with its length axis vertical, in water with s.g. = 1,02 ? Assume the centre of gravity is
at the geometric centre.
5.3.2 Angle of tilt

A body with a small angle of tilt ()experiences a righting moment to maintain stable equilibrium.

The righting moment can be expressed as:

Righting moment = W.z
where W is the total weight.

The tilt is caused by a small mass, W,

that was moved a distance x across the deck.

Using rnoments, it can be shown that -

W.MG .sin = W.x

Example 5.3

A ship, with dimensions of 60 m long by 8,4 m wide, has a displacement of 15 MN in

seawater with a s.g = 1,025. A weight of 150 kN is moved 6 m across the deck, resulting
in a 3° angle of tilt. Find the Metacentric height. The ship has a form factor of 72 % and
the centre of buoyancy is 1,5 m below the water surface. Find the position of the centre
of gravity.
Solution to 5.3