Displacement (ship)

Displacement or displacement tonnage is the weight of water that a ship displaces when it is floating,
which in turn is the weight of a ship (and its contents). It is usually applied to naval vessels rather than
commercial ones, and is measured when the ship's fuel tanks are full and all stores are aboard.

Buoyancy
The ability of an object to float is described as its buoyancy. The buoyancy of an object is its tendency to
float on or rise in a liquid. An object that floats in water is said to be positively buoyant. An object that sinks
is negatively buoyant.

Law of Flotation
The law of flotation states that a floating object displaces its own weight of the fluid in which it floats.

Tonnes per Centimetre Immersion:

TPC. Tonnes per Centimetre Immersion. If the vessel is loading in salt water and the freeboard is checked
it may be found that more cargo can be loaded to immerse the ship another few centimetres. It is useful to
convert this to tonnes.

Loaded displacement

Loaded displacement is the weight of the ship including cargo, passengers, fuel, water,
stores, dunnage and such other items necessary for use on a voyage. These bring the ship down to its
"load draft", colloquially known as the "waterline".

Full load displacement and loaded displacement have almost identical definitions. Full load is
defined as the displacement of a vessel when floating at its greatest allowable draft as established by
classification societies (and designated by its "waterline").Warships have arbitrary full load condition
established.

Deep load condition means full ammunition and stores, with most available fuel capacity used.

Light displacement

Light displacement (LDT) is defined as the weight of the ship excluding cargo, fuel, water, ballast,
stores, passengers, crew, but with water in boilers to steaming level.

Normal displacement

Normal displacement is the ship's displacement "with all outfit, and two-thirds supply of stores,
ammunition, etc., on board.

Standard displacement

Standard displacement, also known as "Washington displacement", is a specific term defined by

the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. It is defined as the displacement of the ship complete, fully
manned, engined, and equipped ready for sea, including all armament and ammunition, equipment,
outfit, provisions and fresh water for crew, miscellaneous stores, and implements of every description
that are intended to be carried in war, but without fuel or reserve boiler feed water on board.

Deadweight tonnage
Deadweight tonnage is a measure of a vessel's capacity in weight, and does not include the weight of the
ship.
Deadweight = Full loaded displacement light displacement.

Block Coefficient
Is a general measure of how full its hullform. In general for conventional displacement hulls, the slower a
ship is intended to go the fuller its hullform can be. At higher speeds, however, a decrease in Block
Coefficient is desirable to keep power requirements from becoming excessive. At the higher end of the
speed range of conventional displacement hulls though, the benefits of further reduction in Block
Coefficient tends to taper off.

Reserve buoyancy, freeboard and trim:

The more you load the boat, the greater is its displacement, the more it will sink in the water, the less
reserve buoyancy it will have.
Every boat must have sufficient reserve buoyancy to operate safely: do not overload your vessel.
Commercial vessels have a load line assigned to them and it is an offence to proceed to sea with this
loadline submerged.
This line is sometimes know as the Plimsoll Line, after Samuel Plimsoll who campaigned heavily for the
safe loading of ships in the 1870s.

Load lines
Load lines are painted on the side of ships to show how low it may safely rest in the water.

Watertight Integrity
A ship is nothing more than a water tight container or storage compartment with its own means of
propulsion. Its purpose is to load and carry cargo, whether the cargo is passengers, fish, or a host of other
commodities. Each type of ship is specialised for the trade in which it will operate. One of the most
important factor of design is to ensure that the water in which your vessel floats, does not enter the hull and
cause progressive flooding. We call this characteristic of a vessel its watertight integrity.

Maintenance of Watertight Integrity

Watertight integrity can be breached through any activity or happening that allows the ingress of water in
unwanted areas or compartments of the vessel.

Typical examples include:

Lack of maintenance to seals, screw threads and other locking devices.
Damage caused by collision, grounding or heavy weather.
Leaving hatches, doors, vents etc open.
Blocked freeing ports or scuppers.
Cracks along welds in metal vessels or loss of caulking from planked seams in timber vessels.

Damage stability
Damage stability calculation is a subject for continuous increasing need. The activity to protect against
pollution has resulted in a number of new IMO regulations.

Tan, Jonel K.
MR12FA1