Floating Stability

Our goal is to teach the students about floating stability, including buoyancy and gravitational centre. Theories that underpin floating wind turbine foundations for example.

Their  goal is to beat their classmates by designing a pontoon which can carry the greatest mass at as high a position as possible.

Students (groups of 4) are provided a menu of available materials, and a fresher on the key technical concepts.

After some design calculations, they construct their pontoon and do some preliminary test. This gives them an intuitive understand of the concepts and allows them time to make more insighful design adjustments before finalising their pontoon.

On competition day, each group tests their pontoon by adding weights while it floats in a water tank...how long can the structure remain stable!

Their score is the mass carried (M), multiplied by the height (H) of that mass, while stability of the pontoon was maintained. 

The highest scoring team wins!