HangingBallast

From Seasteading
Revision as of 17:24, 3 September 2008 by Patri (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Description

For single-spar designs which are gravitationally stable (C_g below C_b), rather than having the ballast at the bottom of the spar, we could hang it from the spar for additional leverage.

Detail

  • This allows for much greater leverage of the ballast on the center of gravity, therefore allowing for less ballast and greater topside weight, without the additional cost of a long spar.
  • Leads to stability issues when undeployed, however.
  • It scares Patri that the seastead will be made unstable if ballast cables are severed.
  •  ? Is this needed/useful for metacentrically-stable designs, such as multi-column?

In this picture, imagine much longer cords for the hanging buoyancy:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2313/2534491378_50db429f2c.jpg