Buoyancy and stability of floating &

submerged bodies
The flow zone
 Content :-

• Explanation of buoyancy force .

• Floating, suspended and sinking bodies.

• Stability and factors affecting it.

• Examples and applications.

First : explanation of buoyancy force and
types of bodies.
Archimedes'
principle
Examples and applications
Ex:1
Hot air balloon is an application and
example of buoyancy force where the
hot air is less dense than relatively
cold air .
The altitude of the balloon is controlled
by temperature difference between air
inside and outside the balloon .

While rising temperature the density of

air decreases and the altitude increase
(floating body ).

And the same idea while cooling the

air become denser and altitude
decrease (sinking body ).

If the balloon is neither rising or falling

then the body is in buoyant equilibrium.
 Submarines

Submarines are other application of

buoyancy and stability where to make
a sub marine sink or float we put tanks
(ballast tanks) if we need to make it
sink to water we add sea water in
these tanks to increase weight
overcoming buoyant force and make it
sink to the water

Simirally if we need to make the

submarine float to water level we add
air to the tanks through valve making it
lighter than water and forcing out
water from tanks and make it emerge
to water level
Figure showing ballast tank
 Main parts of ballast tanks

• 1 - Flood ports : flood ports are openings at the bottom of outer part of the
ballast tank which allows water to enter or leave the tank .

• 2 - Air vents : main usage is to make air to enter the tank pushing water out
through flood ports of it making the submarine lighter and emerge to water
level or opening it letting air out of the tank and letting water in to the tank
increasing submarine weight allowing it to dive .
Stability of floating and submerged bodies
Stability is a very important
concederation while
designing a floating body as
ferries , boats ,ships and
even submarines so we will
discuss stability and give
examples and applications .
 Factors affecting stability of
an object
1 - Center of gravity ( CG ) : location of center of mass of body , where the lower the CG the
greater the stability .

2 – buoyancy center( CB ) : center of the immersed part of the body when the CG is below CB the
body is stable , if its above CG instability can occur .

3 – Metacenter ( M ) : the point where buoyancy force acts when the body tilts , a higher
metacenter make the body more stable
Stability can be obtained from
realtions between center of gravity ,
center of buoyancy and metacenter

B : center of buoyancy
M : metacenter
G : center of gravity
B^ : new center of buoyancy after
tilitng
In the figure shown the body is at equilibrium position
not yet tilted and it is neutrally buoyant
In this figure metacenter lies
above center of gravity and
applies to relation BM > BG

After tilting the center of

buoyancy changed to new
place close to the most weight
in the immersed part of the
body and buoyancy force pass
through metacenter acting
upwards and weight of the
body acting at center of gravity
downwards forming a
restoring couple moment
makes the body return to its
orginial position so in this case
the body is stable
In this figure center of
gravity changed and
position of metacenter
changed to become below
center of gravity so that the
body tilted the forces
shown are oppositely
making an overturning
couple moment making the
body or the ship unstable
or critically stable if
BM = BG
Not taking stability
in conciderations
can make
disasters and sink
enormous ships to
the sea as shown .
Examples and Applications on stability
 Hydrometers

Hydrometers are devices used to

measure density of a fluid or its
specific gravity , the design of this
device make it very stable by
putting a very dense material which
is denser than rest of hydrometer
material ( glass + air inside) at the
bottom of it moving the location of
CG towards the bottom and makes
it permanently below buoyancy
center CB always making
restoring couple moment turning
it to its upright position .
Submarine stability

Unlike ships submarines has

two conditions of stability

1 - surfaced condition

2 - submerged condition

And we will discuss both

conditions
Surfaced stability of
a submarine

A surfaced submarine is
similar to surfaced ships and
applies to same stability
conditions as we discussed
which means the must be a
part of the submarine rise
above the waterline and must
remain afloat and this is called

Reserve of buoyancy (ROB)

Stability of a Surfaced submarine
As in surfaced ships , a surfaced submarine
acts the same and follow the same principles
and the main factor of stability is the position
of Metacenter ( M ) when the submarine is
tilted and buoyancy center ( B ) moved to a
new one ( B1 ), Metacenter remained above
center of gravity ( G ) then the buoyancy force
and the weight of submarine make a restoring
couple moment making the surfaced
submarine return to its upright position.
 Stability of submerged
submarine
In a submerged submarine the angle of
tilting does not make any change in
immersed volume of the submarine as
it is totally submerged in the water so
that the metacenter and buoyancy
center coincide at one point and now
we have two cases .

1 – if buoyancy center is above center

of gravity , forces make overturning
moment ( unstable )

2 – if center of gravity is above

buoyancy center then forces will make
restoring moment ( stable )

As shown
Thank you