FUNDACIÓN UNIVERSITARIA AGRARIA DE COLOMBIA

DEPARTAMENTO DE CIENCIAS BÁSICAS

www.uniagraria.edu.co

FLOATATION AND STABILITY

Betsy Rodriguez.
[email protected]
Wilmar Gomez

WHAT IS IT?

The resulting force exerted on a body by a static

fluid, in which it is submerged or floating is called
buoyant force. The cause of this force is pressure But ( h2 - h1) dA = dV, is the volume of the
difference existing on the upper and lower surfaces. element; Thus

Consider the object fully immersed in a static liquid.

The vertical force on the body, due to hydrostatic
pressure, where V is the volume of the object. But the ratio
It can be found more easily by considering ρgV is simply the weight of the liquid whose
cylindrical volume elements similar to the one volume is equal to the volume of the object. It is
shown in this figure. concluded that the buoyant force acting on the
object is equal to the weight of the displaced liquid
by the object itself. Note that the buoyant force is
independent of the distance
from the object to the free surface and the density of
the solid body. In addition, the weight and buoyant
force must have the same line of action to create a
zero moment. This is known as the Archimedean
principle, after the Greek mathematician (287-212
Figure 1 Body immersed in a static fluid. B.C.), who apparently used it in 220 B.C. to
determine the gold content in the crown of King
In a static fluid Hiero II.

For floating bodies, the weight of the entire body

must be equal to the force of floatation, which is the
Integrating with constant ρ, we obtain weight of the fluid whose volume is equal to that of
the submerged part of that body; that is to say:

The net vertical force on the element is

 location. If a floating body is promoted or descends
by vertical force, the body will return to its original
position as soon as the external effect is removed.
Therefore, a floating body possesses vertical
stability, while a neutrally floating submerged one
Therefore, the submerged fraction of the volume of is in indifferent balance, since it does not return to
a floating body is equal to the ratio of the average its original position after a disturbance.
density of the body to the density of the fluid. Note
that when the ratio of densities is equal to or greater The rotational stability of a submerged body
than one, the floating body becomes fully depends on the locations relative to the body's
submerged. Based on this, it can be concluded that a center of gravity G and the buoyancy center B,
submerged body in a fluid: (1) remains at rest at any which is the centroid of the displaced volume. A
point in the fluid, when its density equals the body totally or partially submerged is in stable
density of the fluid; (2) it sinks to the bottom, when equilibrium if its center of gravity G is below its
its density is greater than that of the fluid; and (3) float center B, as illustrated in Figure 2.20. If the
rises to the surface of the fluid and floats when its body turns, it set a moment to straighten it and
density is less than that of the fluid. return it to its original position with G directly
below B. If the center of gravity of a body totally
STABILITY OF SUBMERGED AND FLOATING submerged is above the float, the body is in unstable
BODIES equilibrium, as it establishes a momentum
imbalance when the body rotates, as illustrated in
The buoyant force on a body always acts through Figure.
the centroid of the displaced volume, while weight
makes it through the center of gravity. These
characteristics can make a partially or totally
submerged body stable or unstable. An object is in
stable equilibrium if a slight displacement generates
forces or moments that restore the original position
of the object. An object is in unstable equilibrium if
a slight displacement generates forces or moments
that further displace the object. An object is in
indifferent balance if the displacement does not
generate forces or moments. The stability is similar
to what happens to a ball when it moves slightly on
the three surfaces shown in Figure
f the center of gravity of a floating body is above its
center of buoyancy, the body could be stable or
unstable as the float center changes as that the
object rotates. The reasons for this difference can be
illustrated with two floating wooden blocks: one
Figure 2. Illustration of the concept of stability. short and wide and one long and thin.
In both blocks the float center moves by
For a submerged or floating body in static balance, above the surface. For the same angle of rotation,
the weight and strength of flotation acting on it the floating center of the
balance each other and inherently those Bodies are short and wide block moves more to the right than
stable in the vertical direction. If a neutrally the long block and thin. The result is that the new
submerged body floating rises or falls to a different floating center B ’of the short and wide block it is
depth, the body it will remain in balance at that now to the right of the center of gravity, while the
new center float of the long thin block is still to the
left of the center flotation. The short and wide block
has a reset time and is stable while the long thin
block has a disturbing moment and is unstable.

Figure 3 Stability comparison between two wooden

blocks, one short and wide and the other long and
thin: (a) and (c) "balance" position; (b) and (d)
position after the turn.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Çengel, Y.A., and Cimbala, J.M., Fluid

Mechanics, fundamentals and applications,
1st ed., McGraw-Hill Interamericana, 2006.

2. Fox, R.W., & McDonald, A.T.,

Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, 4th ed.,
John Wiley & Sons, 1995.

3. Gerhart, P.M., Gross, R.J. and Hochstein,

J.I., Foundations of Mechanics of Fluids,
2nd ed., Addison-Wesley Iberoamericana,
1995.