How to figure how much weight I can put on my barge.

The Myark folding trailer barge picture attached has 13 ton digger on top of 10.m X 4.8 X .500 sealed hull structure to have some idea of load.

The barge itself in self trailer form when folded weights 2000kg.

The deck on this barge is 4mm 5052 aluminum tread plate with 4mm x 60mm 5083 stringers, the bottom hull is 5mm 5083.

I proved with my simple design one can make a 4mm deck and load a 13 ton digger on top and leave no damage which is by placing the stringers 80mm apart with cross members .800 apart.

I seen heavy plated barges with sails formed into the deck because they place the stringers to far apart thinking the thickness of deck plate that counts which is wrong as the stringers are what take the majority of load.

 

There's been incidences where the hulls rusting inside of old ships and barges has used up all the oxygen into making rust,and workers have died. Good idea IMO,hope it doesn't leak out.

As for saving weight, nitrogen is only 3% lighter than air.
Seeing as air is almost 80% nitrogen anyways and a cubic foot of air weighs 1.28 oz.,at 1200 cubic feet and 96 pounds of air-you're saving about half a pound by using nitrogen.

 

I did answer only theoretically the TO's question:

"I was just curious as how to figure out how much weight the barge can hold with out being completely submerged."

The "safety factor" was only for buckling sheets and so on, not for real nautical use.

 

A weight of 1000 kg, placed in the right place, increase the draft of the barge in 3.7 cm. But that same weight, poorly located, will cause the boat to capsize or at least cause serious stability problems.

 

The ABC easy know how much weight before submerges is on one cubic meter of water weighing 1000 kilograms, 1000 kilograms weighs 2200 pounds.

Work out the rough weight of barge then the cubic meter area transferred to water weight.

 

It doesn't matter if the oxygen is removed due to corrosion or if the oxygen is not there because it has been replaced by nitrogen - it's a potential safety hazard, since you can asphyxiate working inside the barge hull.

Before entering enclosed spaces which have been shut up a while, one should make sure they're well ventilated and use a sniffer to test the oxygen level inside.

 

I like your operation, I hope it all goes well.
I don't do Facebook and I've been banned from a few other sites so this is where I am.

Let's start over.

Here's the answer to what you asked about a 4x10x30' barge...Each cubic foot of volume will displace/support 62# in fresh water. 62 x 1,200= 74,400 lbs. So if the weight of everything together, which is the equipment, the load, the barge itself, people, spuds, cables, fuel etc. weighed 74,400 lbs, the deck would be flush with the water.

The weight of the compressor can be from 2200 to 5400 lbs. http://www.mmdequipment.com/air-compressors.html
The welder maybe 1,300 lbs.

So, it's a deck barge with a high center of gravity that is somewhere above the deck when loaded, as compared to an open barge where the cog would be approximately 4' lower. That's a big difference on a 10' wide hull.

In my opinion, a shape 10' wide by 4' deep loaded with that much weight would be highly unstable. It's just a guess though.

Going by what you posted, I assumed all your equipment was loaded on one 10x4x30' barge, now it appears it's loaded on two barges. Is that correct?

Going by what you posted, I assumed your excavator weighed 40,000 lbs or 20 tons. On the Kubota site, http://www.kubota.com/product/KXSeries.aspx the largest excavator I can find that they make is the KX080, which has a weight of 19,140 lbs. Say 10 tons.

Well, I guess you got me there. My new assumption is the size of your barge is twice the size you originally posted, and the excavator is half the weight you said it was. Have I assumed wrong again?

Previously I assumed this was not very wise, but I don't have or use barges so what would I know?

 

Here's a recent anecdote.....
www.worksafenews.com.au/news/item/450-capsized-barge-disaster-ends-in-fines-of-$600,000.html
Lucky(?) no one died.
https://submissions.swa.gov.au/SWAf...ern Cross Demolition Pty Ltd Attachment A.pdf
Jeff

 

Obviously