Kul-24.

3300 Ship Buoyancy and Stability

Assignment 2.
Markus Tompuri

Model Answer

4.10.2012
1(3)

Task 1.
Equilibrium position requires that the total moment around an arbitrary point zero. In this case the
external moment Mext is acting on the ship and thus this moment has to be compensated by the static
restoring moment Mst. Consequently:

M ext M st 0 M ext M st
When the heeling angle is small ( < 10) the static restoring moment Mst can be approximated as:

M st GM 0 sin

M ext GM 0 sin

where:

M ext g GM 0 sin

GM 0

M ext
g sin
22 000 000 Nm
16500 m 1001 kg m 3 9.81 m s 2 sin(6 )
3

1.299 m

GM 0 KB0 B0 M 0 KG KM 0 KG

KG KM 0 GM 0
13.3 m - 1.299 m
12.001 m
Task 2.
Metacentric height:

GM 0 KB0 B0 M 0 KG
where KB 0 is the height of the center of buoyancy from the base line K:

Kul-24.3300 Ship Buoyancy and Stability

Assignment 2.
Markus Tompuri

4.10.2012

Model Answer

2(3)

The buoyancy of the semisubmersible platform consists of the following 6 components:

pontoon PS
pontoon SB
column 1
column 2
column 3
column 4
sum

length
60
60
10
10
10
10

width
10
10
10
10
10
10

height
10
10
10
10
10
10

volume
6000
6000
1000
1000
1000
1000
16000

v.c.g.
5
5
15
15
15
15
7.5

vol*vcg
30000
30000
15000
15000
15000
15000
120000

The submerged height of the columns is limited to the draft of T = 20m.

Thus we obtain:

KB 0 7.5m
B0 M 0 is the metacentric radius, it is calculated on the basis of the inertial moment of the waterplane
area and the volume of displacement:

IT

B0 M 0

For a single column the inertia moment of the waterplane area is:

lb3 10 103 4

m 833.333m 4
12
12

I T ,column

By applying the Steiners rule we obtain:

I T 4 I T ,column Aw,column d 2

where the waterplane area of a single column is Aw,column 100 m and the distance from the x-axis is
d = 25 m
Resulting in:

IT 4 833.333 100 252 m 4 253333.3m 4

Thus the metacentric radius is:

B0 M 0

IT 253333.3m 4

15.833m

16000m3

KG is the height of the center of gravity G from the base line level K. This has been given in the
assignment.
Thus the metacentric height is:

Kul-24.3300 Ship Buoyancy and Stability

Assignment 2.
Markus Tompuri

Model Answer

4.10.2012
3(3)

GM 0 KB0 B0 M 0 KG
7.5m 15.833m 21m
2.333m
For the other direction (around the y-axis) we get IL = 93 333 m4. And consequently GML = -7.67
m, meaning that the platform is unstable and will capsize! For offshore structures the stability
must be checked for all directions (0 .. 360 deg), i.e. the so-called Azimuth directions.

Task 3.

Lets start from the moment equation:

M ext M st 0 M ext M st
In this case there is no external heeling moment, thus Mext = 0. The restoring moment can be expressed
by using the righting lever arm. Thus for a ship with vertical sides:

tan 2
M st GZ GM 0 sin B0 M 0
sin
2

Consequently, by combining the previous equations we obtain:

tan 2
GM 0 sin B0 M 0
sin 0
2

GM 0 B0 M 0

tan 2

tan 2
0
2

2GM 0
B0 M 0

where:

B0 M 0 KM 0 KB0 KM 0

T
3m
5m 3.5 m
2
2

After substituting the input values we get:

tan 2

16.3

2 0.15 m
0.086
3.5 m