The free surface effect is a mechanism which can cause a

watercraft Any vehicle used in or on water as well as underwater, including boats, ships, hovercraft and submarines, is a watercraft, also known as a water vessel or waterborne vessel. A watercraft usually has a propulsive capability (whether by sail, ...

to become unstable and

capsize Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...

. It refers to the tendency of liquids — and of unbound aggregates of small solid objects, like seeds, gravel, or crushed ore, whose behavior approximates that of liquids — to move in response to changes in the

attitude Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a pro ...

of a craft's cargo holds, decks, or liquid tanks in reaction to operator-induced motions (or

sea state In oceanography, sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water—with respect to wind waves and swell—at a certain location and moment. A sea state is characterized by statistics, including the wave height, ...

s caused by waves and wind acting upon the craft). When referring to the

free surface In physics, a free surface is the surface of a fluid that is subject to zero parallel shear stress, such as the interface between two homogeneous fluids. An example of two such homogeneous fluids would be a body of water (liquid) and the air in ...

effect, the condition of a tank that is not full is described as a "slack tank", while a full tank is "pressed up".

Stability and equilibrium

In a normally loaded vessel any rolling from perpendicular is countered by a righting moment generated from the increased volume of water displaced by the hull on the lowered side. This assumes the center of gravity of the vessel is relatively constant. If a moving mass inside the vessel moves in the direction of the roll, this counters the righting effect by moving the center of gravity towards the lowered side. The free surface effect can become a problem in a craft with large partially full bulk cargo compartments, fuel tanks, or water tanks (especially if they span the full breadth of the ship), or from accidental flooding, such as has occurred in several accidents involving

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

ferries. If a compartment or tank is either empty or full, there is no change in the craft's center of mass as it rolls from side to side (in strong winds, heavy seas, or on sharp motions or turns). However, if the compartment is only partially full, the liquid in the compartment will respond to the vessel's heave, pitch, roll, surge, sway or yaw. For example, as a vessel rolls to port, liquid will displace to the port side of a compartment, and this will move the vessel's center of mass to port. This has the effect of slowing the vessel's return to vertical. The momentum of large volumes of moving liquids cause significant

dynamic Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dyna ...

forces, which act against the righting effect. When the vessel returns to vertical the roll continues and the effect is repeated on the opposite side. In heavy seas, this can become a

positive feedback Positive feedback (exacerbating feedback, self-reinforcing feedback) is a process that occurs in a feedback loop which exacerbates the effects of a small disturbance. That is, the effects of a perturbation on a system include an increase in th ...

loop, causing each roll to become more and more extreme, eventually overcoming the righting effect leading to a capsize. While repeated oscillations of increasing magnitude are commonly associated with the free surface effect, they are not a necessary condition. For example, in the cases of both the and , gradual buildup of water from fire-fighting caused capsizing in a single continuous roll.

Mitigation

To mitigate this hazard, cargo vessels use multiple smaller bulk compartments or liquid tanks, instead of fewer larger ones, and possibly baffles within bulk compartments or liquid tanks to minimize the free surface effects on the craft as a whole. Keeping individual bulk compartments or liquid tanks either relatively empty or full is another way to minimize the effect and its attendant problems. Hydraulic tankers use water to displace lighter oil to keep the tank full at all times. Tanks or compartments that do not straddle the vessel's centerline are somewhat less prone to destabilising oscillations. Similarly, narrow compartments (aligned bow to stern) and compartments at the extremes away from the centerline are less prone to cause instability.

Historical examples

Flooding, liquid cargo leakage, or unintended water (from precipitation, waves, or hull damage) in any compartments or on any decks of watercraft, and the resulting free surface effect are often a contributing cause of accidents, capsizes, and casualties e.g. the loss of (Wellington, New Zealand, April 1968), (Zeebrugge, Belgium, March 1987), and (Baltic Sea, September 1994). In the case of the RORO ferry ''

al-Salam Boccaccio 98 The MS ''al-Salam Boccaccio 98'' was an Egyptian Ro/Ro passenger ferry, operated by El Salam Maritime Transport, that sank on 3 February 2006 in the Red Sea en route from Duba, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga in southern Egypt. The ship was carrying ab ...

'' (Red Sea, February 2006), improper fire-fighting procedures caused flooding leading directly to instability and capsize. In both the cases of the ''al-Salam Boccaccio 98'' and , severe listing followed immediately after the ship had undergone a hard turn, causing unstable volumes of water (from collision damage in the latter) to surge from one side of the ship to the other.

Effects on land and aircraft

The free surface effect can affect any kind of craft, including

(where it is most common),

bulk cargo Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude o ...

or liquid tanker

semi-trailer A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. In the United States, the term is also used to refer to the combination of a truck and a semi-trailer; a tractor-trailer. A large proportion of a semi-trailer's weight is supported by a trac ...

s and

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s (causing either

jackknifing Jackknifing is the folding of an articulated vehicle so that it resembles the acute angle of a folding pocket knife. If a vehicle towing a trailer skids, the trailer can push the towing vehicle from behind until it spins the vehicle around and ...

or roll-overs), and

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

(especially

fire-fighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typicall ...

water-droppers and refueling tankers where baffles mitigate but do not eliminate the effects). The term "free surface effect" implies a liquid under the influence of gravity.

Slosh dynamics In fluid dynamics, slosh refers to the movement of liquid inside another object (which is, typically, also undergoing motion). Strictly speaking, the liquid must have a free surface to constitute a slosh dynamics problem, where the dynamics of t ...

is the overarching field which covers both free surface effects and situations such as space vehicles, where gravity is inconsequential but inertia and momentum interact with complex fluid mechanics to cause vehicle instability.

References

External links