Lecture 1 : Basic Introduction and Geometry of Ship Hulls

This course is concerned primarily about basic hydrostatics of a floating body. This means,
we assume a floating body in water, and there is no motions either of the body or the fluid
(water). Therefore it is purely in static condition. Our objective is to find out everything about
the body in those condition: for examples: conditions for it to float, conditions required to float
it in some particular orientation (say upright condition), what happens if weights are added
and/or shifted, or some part of the hull are damaged, etc.

It is common knowledge that under hydro (i.e. water) – static (i.e no motion anywhere)
condition, the only force that the body experiences is the hydrostatic pressure acting normal
to the surface. When these are added, one gets the total fluid force acting on the body. This
is called the buoyancy force, and in centuries ago, Archimedes had figured out that this force
acted vertically upwards, and its magnitude equalled the weight of the displaced fluid. The
resultant force acts through the so-called centre of pressure, which here is called the centre
of buoyancy.
The other force is of course the weight of the body itself.

For the body to remain in equilibrium, total force and moment on the body must remain zero,
which tells us that the buoyancy must equal weight of the body. Additionally, the centre of
gravity and centre of buoyancy, through both of which weight and buoyancy force act, are
along a vertical line. Since total moment must be zero, the normal distance between these
two force vectors must be zero, which in turn means that these two centres must lie on the
same vertical line.

Now, since the fluid hydrostatic pressure acts on the surface and also in normal direction, itis
clear that this force and the resulting moment depends on the geometry.

This, to determine the buoyancy force and the associated moment, we need to first
understand the underwater hull geometry clearly.
Geometry of Ship Hulls

Except ships, nearly all floating ocean structures are composed of regular geometric shapes
like vertical cylinders, rectangular boxes with rounded corners etc. For example, typical spar
platforms are nothing but vertical circular cylindrical in shape, a typical column-stabilized
semisubmersible is composed of rectangular pontoons and circular cylinders, etc. These
geometries thus do not need special definitions, and the geometric properties like voulumes,
centroids etc are easily calculable from standard formulae.

Ship hulls however do not follow any standard geometrical shapes. Therefore we need to
understand its geometry by means of s set of paramaters.

Ship Hulls
Baseline a line lying in the long. plane of symmetry and parallel to the designed summer
load water line.

In defining the hull surface, baseline is typically used as the longitudinal axis x, with z
pointed upwards.

Designed summer load water line (LWL) is the waterline upto which a ship can be loaded
in seawater during summer (assuming water surface is calm, i.e. no waves).
After perpendicular, or AP, is a line perpendicular to the LWL through the centre of the
rudder stock or after-side of rudder post (depending on type of rudder).

Forward perpendicular of FP is a line perpendicular to the load line at the intersection of

LWL with hull at centreplane.

Length between perpendicular is the longitudinal distance between AP and FP, written as
LBP or LPP.

LOA, or Length overall is the maximum length of the hull, typically from the foremost point
of uppermost deck to the after-most point of the uppermost deck at aft or stern.

LWL or length at load waterline is the length of the hull at the waterline.

The midpoint of LBP is midship, which is dented by the symbol shown below

The vertical sections of the hull are called stations, i.e. this are projection of the hull on the
yz lane for different x. Typically hull is divided into 11 or 21 stations between AP and FP, AP
being stn no. 0 and FP being stn no. 11/21. This means, hull divided is into 10/20 blocks.

Often further half/quarter stns are introduced at aft and for ends, as well as stns used
beyond the AP and FP.

Draft D is ht above baseline of the intersection of dk. Plate with side

Draft (draught) T is vertical distance from keel to load water line.

Volume of displacement is the hull volume under load water line.

There are several other paramaters to describe the hull, such as camber, sheer etc., which
are shown in the diagrams.
Describing a ship hull

Since hull is a continuously curved but smooth surface, it is defined by means of a set of
sections in the vertical and horizontal planes, referred to as stations and waterlines in ship
nomenclature.
 Stations

Waterlines

Buttocks

Stations: projections in y-z plane for different x

Waterlines: projections in x-y plane for different z

Buttock: projections in x-z plane for different y

Say, hull is defined by F(x,y,z) = 0

Or,

y = f(x,z)

y is called half-breadth

plot of (z,y) for different x or stations: Body Plan (gives different station geometries)

plot of (x-y) for different z : half breadth plan (gives different waterline geometries)

plot of (x-z) for different y : sheer plan (gives different buttock lines)

This means that, hull is basically gridded into a number of vertical sections (stations), and
horizontal sections (waterlines)

Typically, for vertical stations, divide the ship LBP by a number of equidistant stayions. If
necessary, make further subdivisions at ends.

For horizontal sections, waterlines are usually at equal intervals of say 1m.

Plot of the three plans is called lines plan.

Lines plan
 Lines plan

Offset Table:

Hull defined as y=f(x,z)

y = half-breadth

Providing these data in tabular form, i.e. value of y for different x and y is called offset table.

waterlines or different z values

stns. 0 1 2 3 .. .. 20
or (say)
diff. 0
x 1 y
values values
2
..
..
20
21
Typically offset table also includes the y values at the boundary of the hull like different
decks, which may not be at the same height.

The data is also supposed to include all other relevant information like step ad sgtern
contours, where any particular structural members end/terminate etc.

Lines plane is similar to typical; engineering drawing in three projections, but here we have
to have the projections at different intervals, The other difference is that, information on all
other terminating curves, like deck, stem/stern contour etc. are also contained, and these are
also made available in typical offset tables.

Typical offset table

Coefficients of Form or Form-Coefficients

Besides the above definition, the qualitative nature of hull (i.e. how blocky or thin, how fine,
hoe narrow or wide and such features of qualitative nature) is quantified by means of a set of
form coefficients.

(It is also called waterplane area coefficient)

It can be easily checked that

CP = CB/CM; CVP = CB/CWP

or alternatively

CB = CP * CM = CP * CWP

By default, prismatic area coefficient is the longitudinal one.

Since CM is less than 1 (but not much less), CB will be lower than CP.
Numerical Integration

why we need numerical integration

For determining the hydrostatic characteristics of any floating body, one needs to determine
various areas and moments under the of the hull. Typically, for wxample, one requires the
following:

§ The volume of the underwater hull

§ First moment of volume about x (long.) axis (this is the vertical moment of volm)
§ First moment of volume about z (vert.) axis (thi is the long. moment of volm)
§ Area of waterplane
§ 1st moment of area about y-axis (this is the long. moment of area)
§ 2nd moment of area about x-axis (this is the transverse moment of inertia)
§ 2nd mkment of area about y-axis (this is the long. moment of inertia)
§ Area of a section
§ 1st moment of the section area about y-axis (this is the vertical moment of the
section)

In general, this amounts to determining areas and the two moments of irregular shaped
areas. Volume becomes simply a double integration.

These requirements can be further elaborated as shown below:

 
Here : My* = Mxx