The Effects of Weight Changes on Ship’s Stability

Abstract

Over the years, there had been increase in the use of offshore structures. This might not be unconnected with the awareness of the importance of the maritime sector as well as the rise in energy demand. Consequently, the construction, transportation of offshore structures has drastically increased. The loading of offshore structures such as barges requires thorough and careful planning so as to ensure that the barge is stable. This is achieved where following the loading and offloading of the vessel, the position of the centre of gravity, trim and heel are always in acceptable level. This research therefore, employed a rectangular barge on which ballasting procedures were carried out aimed at eliminating trim and heel. This is done by pumping into the barge 1802.84 tonnes of water which was distributed to tanks 2S and 4S. At the end trim and heel are taken to be corrected when LCG = 33.53 m and TCG = 0 where the reference point was the body system orientation (taken from the bow). However, owing to the little quantity of water to be distributed compared to the size of the given tanks, the result showed that trim and heel are taken to be corrected when XCG (LCG) = 28.49 m and YCG (TCG) = 0.12 m.