Moriente, Dexter Flerley B

MT21-B2

Stability is a property of many systems. It means being at rest, not liable to change.
In mechanics and dynamics, a system is stable (has stability) if it will not
change motion of its own accord, and will resist small efforts to change its direction or
position. Ship stability is an area of naval architecture and ship design that deals with
how a ship behaves at sea, both in still water and in waves, whether intact or damaged.
Stability calculations focus on centers of gravity, centers of buoyancy, the metacenters
of vessels, and on how these interact.

Trim is defined as the difference between the draft forward and the draft aft. Draft is the
depth of the hull below the water. If the aft draft is greater, the vessel is described as
being trimmed by the stern, if the forward draft is greater, she is trimmed by the bow.
Buoyancy or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of
an immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of
the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the pressure at the bottom of a column of fluid is
greater than at the top of the column. Similarly, the pressure at the bottom of an object
submerged in a fluid is greater than at the top of the object. The pressure difference
results in a net upward force on the object.

The center of gravity of the ship moves in the same direction as the center of
gravity of mass. Thus if mass is moved forward & down, the center of gravity of ship
also moves forward and down.

Fresh Water Allowance (FWA)

Each cubic meter of water has a weight, 1 000 tonne in the case of fresh water; 1.025
tonnes in the case of saltwater. The hull must displace sufficient cubic meters of
water to balance the weight of the vessel exactly.

Initial stability is the resistance of a boat to small changes in the difference between
the vertical forces applied on its two sides. It is determined by the angle of tilting on
each side of the boat as its center of gravity (CG) moves sideways as a result of the
passengers or cargo moving laterally, or as a response to an external force (e.g. wave).

The curve of statical stability, or GZ curve as it is most commonly referred to, is a

graphical representation of the ship’s transverse statical stability.
Transverse statical stability is the term used to describe the ability of a ship to return to
the upright, when it has been forcibly heeled by an external force and is momentarily at
rest when floating in still water.
The dynamical stability of a ship at any inclination is defined as the work done in
heeling the vessel to that inclination.

Angle of loll is the state of a ship that is unstable when upright (i.e. has a
negative metacentric height) and therefore takes on an angle of heel to
either port or starboard.

The Free Surface Effect. Free surface effect. A tank which is completely filled with
liquid is said to be pressed up”, while one which is not is called a “slack tank”. The
liquid cannot move in a pressed up tank when the vessel is inclined by external (or
internal) forces.

Action to be taken in the event of partial loss of intact buoyancy If nothing is done
about these holes,the ship will lose buoyancy and list or trim stability.Partial flooding
refers to a condition in which an intact compartment is not completely flooded.An
“intact compartment” means that the deck on which the water rests and the bulkheads
that surround it remain watertight.