A Solution to the Inherent List on Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers

density. It was also discovered at this early stage of analysis that for corrections at or beyond 1.5
degrees, <strong>the</strong> 2" deck was a much better location for this ballast addition due <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> lesser weight
addition resulting from <strong>the</strong> larger moment arm generated by filling <strong>the</strong> 2"'' deck voids. The costs
associated with adding ballast <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2"'' deck is much higher, but <strong>the</strong> amount of ballast required
is significantly less than that required for <strong>the</strong> 4"" and 8"' decks. For corrections less than 1.5
degrees, <strong>the</strong> 2" deck and <strong>the</strong> 8"" decks have a fairly comparable weight addition, however,
ballasting <strong>the</strong> 8' deck tanks costs significantly less. The complete preliminary cost comparison
for <strong>the</strong> 2"^ 4*^, and 8'" decks is found in Appendix D.
Adding ballast <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2"'' deck voids does increase KG and thus reduces <strong>the</strong> KG service
life allowance margin; however, <strong>the</strong> increase seen is fairly small. In fact, as shown in Appendix
D, a 1.5 degree list correction results in approximately a 0.1 percent KG increase. On average,
<strong>the</strong> Nimitz class carriers currently have a KG of 47 feet, as shown in Table 1. The goal KG
service life allowance is not <strong>to</strong> exceed 48.5 feet. Thus, <strong>to</strong> fix an inherent list of 1.5 degrees, <strong>the</strong>re
would be a .05 foot increase in KG.
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