Buoyancy and Floatation

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HYDRAULICS 1 2020

BUOYANCY Archimedes’ Principle – (1) Any body immersed in a fluid is acted upon by
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an unbalanced upward force called the buoyant force, which is equal to the weight of
the fluid displaced. (2) A floating body displaces its own weight in the fluid in which it
floats.
BF   F VD

For homogeneous body floating on a homogeneous


liquid, the volume displaced is:

 body SGbody
VD  Vbody  Vbody
BF
 liquid SGliquid
BF

STATICAL STABILITY OF FLOATING BODIES

A floating body is acted upon by two opposing forces. These are, the body’s weight
W (acting at its center of gravity) and its buoyant force BF (acting at the center of
buoyancy that is located at the center of gravity of the displaced liquid).

When these forces are collinear shown in figure (a), it floats in an upright position.
However, when the body tilts due to wind and wave action, the center of buoyancy shifts
to its new position as shown in figure (b) and the two forces, which are no longer collinear,
produces a couple. The body will not overturn if this couple makes the body rotate towards
its original position as shown in figure (b), and will overturn if the situation is as shown in
figure (c)

The point of intersection between the axis of the body and the line of action of the
buoyant force is called the metacenter. The distance from the metacenter (M) to the
center of gravity (G) of the body is called the metacentric height (MG). It can be seen
that a body is stable if M is above G as shown in figure (b), and unstable if M is below G as
shown in figure (c). If M coincides with G, the body is said to be just stable.

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HYDRAULICS 1 2020

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ELEMENTS OF A FLOATING BODY

W = weight of the body


BF = Buoyant force (always equal to W for a floating body)
G = center of gravity of the floating body
Bo = center of buoyancy in the upright position (centroid of the displaced liquid)
Bo’ = center of buoyancy in the tilted position
VD = volume displaced
M = metacenter, the point of intersection between the line of action of the buoyant force
and the axis of the body
c = center of gravity of the wedges (immersion and emersion)
s = horizontal distance between the cg’s of the wedges
v = volume of the wedge immersion
θ = angle of tilting
MBo = distance from M to Bo
GBo = distance from G to Bo
MG = metacentric height, distance from M to G

Righting Moment and Overturning Moment

RM or OM = W(x) = W(MGsinθ)

Metacentric height, MG = MBo + GBo

Use (-) if G is above Bo


Use (+) if G is below Bo
Note: M is always above Bo

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HYDRAULICS 1 2020

Value of MBo
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The stability of the body depends on the amount of the righting moment which in
turn dependent on the metacentric height MG. When the body tilts, the center of
buoyancy shifts to a new position. This shifting also causes the wedge to shift to a new
position. The moment due to the shifting of the buoyant force is must equal to moment to
wedge shift.

𝑣𝑠
𝑀𝐵𝑜 =
𝑉𝐷 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
Initial Value of MBo
For small values of θ, (θ≈0 or θ=0)

𝐼
𝑀𝐵𝑜 =
𝑉𝐷
Note: This formula can be applied to any section

For Rectangular Section

𝐵2 𝑡𝑎𝑛2 𝜃
𝑀𝐵𝑜 = (1 + )
12𝐷 2

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