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If you want a quick primer on buoyancy physics and ship design, Marine Insight has a good writeup: https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/intact-stab
by hectorr1 8y ago
If you want a quick primer on buoyancy physics and ship design, Marine Insight has a good writeup:
https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/intact-stability-of-surface-ships/ https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/intact-stab...
As the article mentioned, wave action will cause the center of gravity (CG) of the liquid to shift, and with it the overall ship's CG. This puts the ship in a new stable equilibrium heeled over to that side. If the compartment isn't dewatered, this process can repeat until the 'stable' equilibrium includes upper decks taking on sea water. CG shifts up, righting arm becomes flipping arm, hull experiences stress beyond tolerances, breaches kill remaining buoyancy, and down she goes.
By the way, the easiest way to tell if a ship is in danger of hitting critical (aka neutral aka very very bad) stablility, watch how long it takes to rock from side to side. A ship that has an excessively long roll period and appears to be hanging to one or both sides can in serious danger.
- astrodust 8y agoLoading the cargo into close-packed hexagonal storage silos would prevent it from shifting too much during transport, and even if it did liquify, it wouldn't slide too far out of balance. You can fill/empty these of granular cargo using large diameter hoses. You could also create one or two special storage bins that can be rotated to an arbitrary degree to help right the ship if it gets into trouble. They're carrying ridiculous amounts of ballast, why not put some of it to use as a counter-weight?
- tomatotomato37 8y agoBecause that's more expensive to implement/load/unload then dumping the whole heap in an open bay and insuring the hell out of it
- totalZero 8y agoYou dont need silos, just baffles. If the cargo doesn't slosh over to one side or another, then it cant solidify in such a position either.
- logfromblammo 8y agoLower a vertical baffle grid into the hold with a crane. Secure it to the hull. Fill the hold with bulk cargo. Ship it. Raise the baffle grid with a crane. Unload the bulk cargo. Repeat from start. You just need open tops and open bottoms in the grid. Open at the top so the cargo can fill the cells between baffles, and open at the bottom so the grid can be raised out of the cargo.
- astrodust 8y agoYou'd probably have to vibrate the cargo and/or the baffle to get it to settle in, which could be tricky, but it's not impossible. Not a bad approach.
- mcguire 8y agoThe hatch would need to be the same size as the hold, as well.
- logfromblammo 8y agoThe baffle grid would need to be the same size as the deck opening. Those are rather large on bulkers, AFAIK. Permanent baffles with open sides can be installed in the sides of the holds. I think those parts probably have sloped sides to follow the bowl shaped cross-section of the ship anyway.
- eecc 8y agoSegmenting the cargo hold? Not necessarily all the way to the bottom, just enough of disrupt superficial sloshing?
- cwkoss 8y agoI wonder if sheets of a cloth-like material could be used in loading similar to Mechanically Stabilized Earth Practical Engineering has a great video on this simple but pervasive technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0olpSN6_TCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0olpSN6_TCc
- Terr_ 8y agoIf it's really behaving like a liquid, then you wouldn't want those gaps.