Stability and Metacentric

Height
The conditions for the stability of floating bodies and ships with solid loads. Includis an
introduction to Metacentric heights and centre of buoyancy
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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Centre Of Buoyancy And Stability
3. The Stability Of Fully Submerged Bodies
4. The Stability Of Partially Submerged Bodies
5. The Determination Of Metacentric Height
6. Page Comments

Key Facts
Gyroscopic Couple: The rate of change of angular momentum ( ) =   (In the limit).

  = Moment of Inertia.
  = Angular velocity
  = Angular velocity of precession.

Introduction
In 1628 the Swedish warship Vasa was launched in Stockholm harbour.
At some time during her construction it had been decided to increase the size and weight of the
cannons on the upper gun deck. At the time of her launch she was ballasted but was not fully
loaded. A full load would have increased her stability but whether it would have been enough to
prevent a catastrophe, is not known.What is known is that she sailed a few yards, heeled over and
sank. Sadly the ship builders of the time did not understand the requirements for a stable ship.
This page, the first of three, examines these requirements and includes worked examples where
the load or ballast is fixed. The two further pages will consider floating bodies with liquid loads
or ballast and the period of roll.

Centre Of Buoyancy And Stability

Center of gravity refers to the mean location of the gravitational force acting on a body.

The Buoyancy Force act through the Centre of Gravity of the Displaced Fluid and is called The
Centre of Buoyancy
There are three Types of Equilibrium:

 Stable. The body returns to it's original position if

given a small angular displacement.
 Neutral. The body remains in a new position if
given a small angular displacement.
 Unstable. The body heals further over if given a
small angular displacement.

The Stability Of Fully Submerged Bodies

Let:

  = Volume of Body.
   = Specific weight of the fluid.
  = Mass of the Body.
  is the Centre of Gravity.
  is the Centre of Buoyancy and is the centre of
gravity of the displaced liquid.

If:

  and   are coincident then the Body will be

in Neutral equilibrium.
  is below   then the Body is
in Unstable equilibrium.
  is above   then the body is in Stable equilibrium.

This last case has a righting couple of  . Where   is the angle of tilt. Note that the
Position of   and  relative to the Body does not change when the body is rotated.

The Stability Of Partially Submerged Bodies

 is the c. of g.,   is the c. of b. and the line     is the original water surface.
After tilting     is the new water line and the angle of Tilt is .
 remains in the same position relative to the ship but the Centre of Buoyancy moves to  .
 is the "META CENTRE" and is defined as the point where the vertical through the new
Centre of Buoyancy meets the original vertical through the Centre of Gravity after a very small
angle of rotation.
 is called the METACENTRIC HEIGHT.
Therefore for stable equilibrium for a floating Partially Submerged Body the Meta
centre must be above the Centre of Gravity  . If the Metacentric height is zero the Body will be
in Neutral equilibrium.
In ship design the choice of the Metacentric height is a compromise between stability and the
amount that the ship rolls. In British Dreadnaught Battle ships, for instanace, the metacentric
height was so great that they had a tendency to roll badly, even with large bilge keels.
The Righting couple 

The Determination Of Metacentric Height

Experimentally
 Let   be the weight of the Boat plus it's Load.
A small load   is moved a distance   and
causes a tilt of angle  . The Boat is now in a
new position of equilibrium with   and   
lying along the Vertical through  .
The Moment due to the movement of the load is
given by:

Moment due to movement of   of 

Theory
The Ship tilts from it's old waterline     to a new
waterline     as it moves through an angle  .
Due to the movement of the wedge of water from   
   to      , the Centre of Buoyancy moves
from   to  .
The Change in the moment of the buoyancy Force
=       

where   is small

The Volume of the Wedge     

Therefore the Moment of the Couple due to the

movement of the wedge 

(2)
Where   is the Second Moment of Area of the
Water Plane Section and   is the volume of water
Displaced.
Thus if the positions of   and   are known or can
be calculated , then the distance   can be
determined since:

There are in fact two Metacentric heights of a ship.

One for Rolling and the other for Pitching. The
former will always be less than the latter and unless
otherwise stated, the Metacentric given will be for
Rolling.