Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
1 INTRODUCTION
The requirements for propulsion of merchant ships are generally satisfied with a simple
slow-speed diesel engine installation, meeting the speed and power demands, directly
connected to the propeller without gearboxes and clutches. The slow-speed engine is,
because of size, the most efficient thermal machine. These slow speed engines are able to
burn heavy fuel easier than a medium speed engine, because they have more time and
space available for combustion. Heavy fuel is a residual from the crude oil refining process
and therefore much cheaper than the refined products.
Unlike medium speed engines without crosshead, where the same lubricant oil has to be
used for the lubrication of the whole engine, which inevitably leads to some compromize as
to its properties, the slow-speed engine with a crosshead has a clear separation between the
crankcase and the cylinders. Therefore recirculating clean system oil can be used for
lubricating the bearings and a separate consumable cylinder luboil is used for piston rings
liner lubrication, but also importantly to deal with the acidic residues of combustion. Special
alkaline oils can be used in this case, injected by cylinder lubricant quills in precise
quantities, distributed in each cylinder and even in each part of the liner.
The slow speed engine has fewer cylinders and consequently fewer moving parts, which
means in principle higher overall reliability. Components, individually, are heavier but their
handling can be performed as easily with special tools and lifting devices. Also any
maintenance work is facilitated by more space available inside the engine and usually also in
the engine room. Maintenance costs often prove to be less than those of medium speed
engines. The noise level is much lower than that of medium speed engines.
The disadvantages of slow speed engines such as the larger footprint and higher space
requirements, the more weight and higher initial price, become less important when
considering the entire propulsion plant and not just the isolated engine.
2 GENERAL DESCRIPTION
All modern slow speed engines share some common characteristics: they are two-stroke,
have a cross head, are turbocharged and uniflow scavenged.
As the engine size increases, the relative advantage of the two-stroke cycle over the fourstroke cycle in specific power becomes more pronounced, surpassing any disadvantages.
With larger engine sizes, the sideways forces produced by the crank mechanism, to be
passed on to the engine body would require a sturdier piston skirt as well as heavy supports
for the relatively thin cylinder liners. The design that was adopted, had been used in the
double acting steam engine, where a gland sealed the piston rod connecting the
reciprocating piston to the top of the connecting rod, to allow steam also to the piston
underside. The sideways forces are taken by the cross head, having slippers sliding on
guides, which are in turn mounted on the engine body. This arrangement also allows for
easy piston removal during maintenance.
An important issue with these large engines is the rigidity of the engine frame. This was not
important for old steam engines, since their thin crankshafts were quite flexible and could
easily absorb the deformations of the ship. But modern large diesel engines have thick
crankshafts to withstand the large forces of combustion and the higher specific powers. The
crankshafts are so rigid that the deformations of the hull would produce excessive reactions
at the main bearings and high stresses in the shafts and couplings. So the machine frame
must be also made quite rigid to protect the crankshaft from unacceptable distortion. The
hull is also reinforced under the engine and supports the engine frame. This reinforcement
is continued for some distance beyond the length of the engine, so as not to cause a
discontinuity at the aft end of the engine, which would affect the propeller shaft.
In the development of large two-stroke engine several design problems had to be resolved.
The large size does not present a particular difficulty in itself, as the stresses due to
mechanical and inertial loads in geometrically similar engines of different sizes, remain in
accordance with the laws of similarity. The most important exceptions are the thermal
stresses. These increase with size and specific design solutions had to be used to develop
components strong enough to receive mechanical loads - which sometimes amount to
hundreds of tons - and at the same time to keep the thermal stresses low. Such designs
involved bore cooling of thick components and strong-back flame plate arrangements.
The operation of these large engines in two strokes, creates problems in the crosshead/
connecting rod top end bearing, which is always loaded in one direction downwards without
a period to refresh the film of lubricant, as in four-stroke engines. The lubrication of piston
rings is also more difficult due to absence the two extra strokes to refresh the oil film, before
it is necessary to seal the combustion gases. Additionally, the presence of ports in the liner
interrupts the smooth running of piston rings on the liner surface.
The engines are so large they have to be piecewise assembled in three major parts, namely
the bedplate, the A-frames (columns) and the cylinder block (entablature). The engine
bedplate is the foundation on which the other components of the engine are built. It
consists of a welded plate structure with cast transverse bearing girder members. The Aframes carry the crosshead guide rails. The entablature (the cylinder block) is from grey
cast iron made as a single part or split in individual cylinder blocks. It rests on the A-frames,
embodies the cooling water passages and forms the housing to receive the cylinder liners.
It may also incorporate the scavenge air receiver. To fasten the bedplate, the frames and
the entablature firmly together, long tie rods are hydraulically tightened through these
three components.
The crankshafts on the large two stroke crosshead engines are too large and heavy to
make as a single unit and so are built up by joining together forged parts (crank throws)
usually by shrink fit or deep welding, then machining on very large horizontal lathes.
The connecting rod connects the crankshaft to the piston assembly and is forged out of
round bar and machined. The crosshead has 4 cast guide shoes with white metal lining to
transmit the sideways forces to the engine structure through the guide rails.
The cylinder liner forms the cylinder in which the piston works. The liner is manufactured
separately from the cylinder block. If they were cast together as one piece, then it would
be difficult to mitigate the thermal stresses. The liner is made of grey cast iron, containing
flake graphite, a lubricant and alloy metals to resist corrosion and wear at high
temperatures. Appropriate cooling of the liner is important to restrain wear. The cylinder
liner will inevitably wear with use and may have to be replaced.
The Piston comprizes two parts; the crown and the skirt. The crown is made of high alloy
steel providing strength and corrosion resistance at high temperatures. The crown is
subject to the high combustion temperatures and its surface may be eroded or burnt away.
The piston has a high topland with the ring grooves placed lower down in the crown to
reduce the combustion load on the rings. The cast iron skirt acts as a guide within the
cylinder liner. A forged steel piston rod bolted to the underside of the piston connects it to
the crosshead. A piston rod gland box separates the scraped down cylinder oil, which is
under scavenge space pressure from the system luboil in the crankcase.
The pistons are cooled using either water or oil. In some arrangements, to enhance
cooling, the oil is sprayed with high pressure jets to the underside of the crown. Water has
a better heat absorption capacity, but there are more risks if there is leakage into the
crankcase.
Modern two stroke crosshead engines have a single hydraulically operated exhaust valve
with an air spring. The water cooled valve cage is housed in the cylinder cover, which is
made of forged steel. The cylinder cover is fastened to the cylinder block by a number of
hydraulically tightened bolts. The fuel injection nozzles and starting valves are also housed
in the cylinder cover.
The turbocharger(s) may be arranged laterally or a single one at the driving end of the
engine. Downstream of the water cooled scavenge air cooler there is a water separator to
prevent condensed water carry over into the engine.
In the 1950s turbocharging helped the diesel engine to win the battle against the steam
turbine, which then dominated the region of high engine powers. Turbocharging not only
allowed increases in power but also improved fuel consumption considerably. Air
supercharging is obtained through an independent turbocharger comprising a centrifugal
compressor and turbine on the same shaft, which works on an open cycle gas turbine
principle, where the cylinders can be regarded as the combustion chamber. Such a cycle is
self-sustaining only if the temperature difference between the compressor and the turbine is
high enough not only to overcome the losses of the cycle but also to provide the required
boost pressure for scavenging of the cylinders. This easily occurs at high loads with modern
turbines and compressors of high efficiency. The turbine is connected downstream of an
exhaust receiver common for several cylinders, the so-called constant pressure
turbocharging system. In the past the more complex impulse system was used to offset the
then lower efficiency of the turbochargers. In that arrangement, the energy of the gas pulse
from the opening exhaust valve was retained, transmitted via narrow piping to the turbine,
but this more complex arrangement is no longer necessary. During low-load operation,
during startup and maneuvering, the exhaust gas temperature is very low, especially in two
stroke engines where scavenge air mixing with exhausting gases reduces further the exhaust
gas temperature upstream of the turbine. In four-stroke engines, the two additional strokes
render the engine capable of breathing on its own, but with large two-stroke engines, the
torque produced by the turbine at low loads usually cannot provide the necessary
compressor boost pressure for scavenging, which must then accomplished by some other
means, for example, by an electically driven scavenge blower in series with the
turbocharger, or with electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic power take-in driving the rotor of the
compressor when needed.
A new ship will be ordered on the basis of size, cargo type and ship speed through water (at
the design point, i.e. at certain conditions of loading and outside environment).
The two-stroke engine designer needs to get both power and speed right independently,
because the engine is directly coupled to shaft driving the propeller. Since every ship has a
potentially different design point, the engine makers in their portfolio offer engines, which
can be individually set up, tuned and optimized at any specific power/speed point anywhere
within the bounds of a so-called layout field of the engine family. This specific for the
individual engine point is called Contract Maximum Continuous Rating (Power) point. The
cost of the engine is directly related to the contract power.
Running the engine continuously at the CMCR point is possible, but it would probably mean
that the maintenance costs would be too high. Normally the engine would be run during
service at some lower power, where the torque delivered would be adequate for the
propeller to produce adequate thrust to move the hull at the specified speed through water.
This power margin between installed (CMCR) power paid for, but normally not used and
continuous service power, is some kind of insurance that if conditions get worse, the ship
can still fulfil its speed through water requirements.
Such conditions are, for example, increased thrust hence power needs from increased
resistance over time due to hull fouling, from heavy weather encountered in a sea passage,
engine performance deterioration due to ageing, or the need for higher speed to catch up
with delays.
As mentioned, for constant ship speed and for a given propeller type, a larger slower
spinning propeller gives improved propulsive efficiency. This trend has led to engine designs
to accommodate the requirements for power at lower engine rotational speeds.
Considering the crank-piston mechanism and assuming the mean velocity of the piston in
the cylinder during the stroke remains unchanged, because of piston ring friction and
lubrication issues, then to obtain a lower crankshaft rotational speed leads to longer piston
stroke. The longer expansion stroke may also provide some efficiency benefits. If the bore
stays unchanged, then the long stroke results in oblong cylinders. In two-stroke engines such
long stroke geometries present difficulties for cylinder scavenging through inlet and exhaust
ports at the bottom of the liner, since the top part of the combustion space will be left
unscavenged. The arrangement followed by all modern slow-speed two-stroke engines, is
the uniflow scavenging pattern, with inlet ports at the bottom of the cylinder and a single
exhaust valve at the top, which inevitably complicates the design.
In the modern electronically controlled engines the timing of this hydraulically actuated
valve can be independently adjusted at various engine operating conditions. In electronic
engines also the fuel injection timing, rate and quantity can be controlled. Usually more than
one fuel injection valves are housed in each cylinder cover and each can be independently
controlled, allowing more flexibility in engine optimisation at all operating conditions. These
large engines start with timed injection of compressed air timed into the cylinders and the
starting air valve can also be electronically controlled.
All large direct coupled marine engines are reversible and can turn the propeller also in the
opposite direction to reverse the ship. The electronic control of the hydraulic actuation of
valves is much simpler than the mechanical shifting of camshafts, required to change the
timing of cylinder events as needed for reversing.
In general the number of cylinders chosen is 5-8, based on operator preferences in overhaul
and maintenance, with some countermeasures for dynamic effects due to hull engine
vibration considerations.
The piston speed affects the piston ring package performance and the cylinder lubrication
system design. Increases in mean piston speed are very moderate. The piston bore size
reflects the power per cylinder. The increases in piston stroke aiming for improved
expansion are tempered by limitations in engine width, to accommodate the larger crank
web radius of rotation. Longer stroke will lead to higher friction losses from the piston rings,
but lower friction in the bearings.
The accuracy of the cylinder lubrication system in achieving piston ring pack injection and
the proper spread and lub oil distribution on the liner is important. Liner protection is a
major issue and the derating potential of an engine, that is the optimising of a large
powerful engine for running continuity at lower power, is limited by cold corrosion which
may affect a colder running engine. Adaptive reduced cooling at lower loads for derated
engines is put forward to avoid cold spots. Piston cooling is often provided by combination
of oil jets and splash cocktail shaker arrangements.
The combustion space is best served by 3 peripheral injectors which, however, affect the
layout and packaging of the cylinder cover. The multi-hole injectors provide plenty of
opportunity for optimisation of timing sequence and spatial distribution of injection. Slide
valves with minimum sac volume are becoming standard. The fuel injection components
appear to follow the high volume production trend used in the 4-stroke engines.
The materials used in engine components rely strong on legacy and past experience. Since
large engines are almost exclusively manufactured under license, the designer provides
detailed weld seam quality instructions for the bedplate and the A-frames. The steel exhaust
valves usually have welded seats. For the future hot isostatic pressing (HIP) manufacturing
using powder metallurgy for valves has been considered.
The white metal bearings traditionally used in large engines with excellent embedability
characteristics for foreign matter, have some limitations in loading capacity. The adoption in
slow speed engines using aluminium based plain bearings with increased loading capability,
will lead to shorter cylinder to cylinder distances, and increased specific power with reduced
weight.
suppliers of engines. To protect this trading mode, part of the licensee agreement imposes
special permissions for licensees to sell outside their countries.
Often large engine builders seek to obtain licenses from more than one licensor, so as to
balance negotiations on fees. Large builders will also achieve volume discounts through
reduction in royalties. From the side of the licensor balance must be achieved between the
number of licensees and market share in terms of optimizing effort and quality. In general
the price for large engines ranges from 100$/kW to 200$/kW depending on size and the
royalty fees are a small fraction of this price. Regarding capacity, the largest builders can
build about 400 engines per year.
The quality of the licensee is of prime importance. The larger ones may have in-house
foundry, welding shop and forging shop, whilst the smaller ones will outsource all these to
subsuppliers. The very small ones will only have assembly and testing work done in-house.
The common practice is to make engines near shipyards and the market is dominated by
licensees affiliated to a large shipyard. The quality assurance imposed by the licensor in the
approval procedure during initial production involves making, measuring, non-destructive
testing, destructive testing, inspection and QA actions. This procedure is applied also to each
sub-supplier e.g. for crankshaft, block, fuel injection parts, but not for non sensitive parts
such as engine tools.
The licensees take drawings in English then probably convert in own language and
engineering standards prior to starting production. The cost estimators within the licensee
are a key department, to make sure not to sell below cost level at a loss. The licensor would
probably have a site office at the licensee, with permanent personnel in consultative role in
production and testing.
An obvious clause in the licensee agreement is that if the licensee attempts to design an own
engine competing with the licensed engine then the license stops. However, it is unlikely
that the licensee would risk loosing a market share with an established product by
embarking in a new and expensive engine own design.
Recently there is a distinct trend of the engine makers to move into the realm of the total
integrated solution provider in ship machinery, including main and auxiliary engines, shafts,
propellers and bridge equipment.
-The cost of crude oil, heavy fuel and distillates as well as the cost and availability of
alternative fuels.
- The introduction of new regulations
-The state of the newbuildings market
-The hull design in relation to the draft and propeller diameter, as well as the positioning of
the engine and the hull lines in the aft of the ship.
-The operational profile of vessels and the combination of fuels costs and freight rates.
The development aims at three general targets, increase of efficiency, reduction of
emissions and improvement of reliability.
10
The developments allowed improvements in the design of the combustion chamber to allow
higher maximum pressures with reduced thermal loading and improved air-fuel mixing. In 2stroke direct drive engines the increase in the piston stroke / bore ratio, whilst retaining the
mean piston speed at levels imposed by tribology, allows for lower propeller shaft rotational
speeds.
Work extraction by further increasing stroke will produce diminishing returns due to friction
and scavenging limitations. The ability to electronically control the fuel injection allows
optimisation of combustion for various engine loads. The use of multiple injections and the
change in timing and injection rate shaping leads to controllable combustion.
The improvements of efficiency of large marine engines in the last 30 years have been
impressive, but now the limits of practical thermodynamic cycles are approached. Some
further reductions in the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions can be achieved by optimizing
the energy use at steady state operation and with improvements in power production
during transients, through electronic control and optimal adjustments. Systems for
monitoring engine operations further allows for control and automatic adjustment
(autotuning) of the various cylinders to ensure good operation.
The fuel used has some effect on efficiency. Higher energy fuels give higher output and
simpler fuels produce lower combustion irreversibilities. Any increased thermal and
mechanical stresses and increased friction due to increases in cylinder pressure must be
considered. Increase in the ratio products / reactants leads to higher work extraction, so
the fuel type may contribute a little if products increase. Combustion in engines is away
from chemical equilibrium and some energy is used to severe chemical bonds and to heat
reactants. There may be some potential here for future research.
11
12
leads to undesirable cooling of the exhaust gases before the turbine, especially in 2-stroke
engines. A less severe problem is the possible liner corrosion due to the saturated air, which
may be counteracted with redesign of the lubrication system and the liner-piston ring coagency.
7 POLLUTANTS EMISSIONS
The legislation of limits to gas emissions from engines is a complex technical, social and
political issue. Emissions limits for Nitrogen oxides and Sulfur Oxides are currently in place
for large engines. Black carbon and particulates emissions may be limited in the future.
The technologies to reduce NOx emissions from engines can be classified into Primary (within
the engine- cylinder) methods and Secondary methods (exhaust gas aftertreatment).
13
14
need for a boosting blower. However the large size of the extra valve required for
substantial EGR apart from the engineering complexity, places severe demands to the
cylinder head design. Another possibility is to intentionally impair scavenging, but this has
associated problems of increased engine thermal load and reduced volumetric efficiency.
The NOx generated inside the cylinder could conceivably be reduced by direct injection of
ammonia. The dosing control, dispersion and ammonia slip problems make this method
practically unworkable.
It is obvious that the reduction of NOx with any of the above methods would result also in
changes to engine performance, therefore a re-optimisation would be necessary.
15
Some closed loop control involving measuring NO in the exhaust is needed to ensure proper
ammonia flow for all engine operating conditions. Reasonably high exhaust gas
temperatures are needed for ammonia to react and this is a problem downstream of the
turbocharger especially in 2-stroke engines and in all engines during startup. Placing the
ceramic catalyst before the turbocharger practically on the engine structure - requires
proper design to account for the increased mechanical vibration loading. Combining a
particle filter with a catalyst SCR surface may be a way to compact units for both NOx and
PM reduction.
16
9 EPILOGUE
The propulsion engine may cost 10% of the total cost of a ship and is the most expensive
item onboard. The large slow-speed two-stroke marine diesel engine has the highest
efficiency of all thermal powerplants. Still, the engines initial cost will be matched in less
than 6 months by the cost of fuel consumed by this engine. The reliability and the fuel
consumption are the two major attributes aimed for by large engine makers. The expected
lifetime of a large marine engine is 30 years (180.000hrs) with time between major
overhauls 5 years, which poses heavy demands on reliability. The design and operation of
ships is also influenced by the legislation on engine emissions. Fuel costs account for the
largest part of total operating costs and thus affect the economics and profitability margins
of ship operation.
Dragsted, Jorn "The first 50 years of turbocharged 2-stroke, crosshead marine diesel
engines", CIMAC, 2013 [www.cimac.info/about-cimac/historyindex.html]
Pounders Marine Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines, 9th edition, Elsevier, 2009.
Kuiken, Kees, "Diesel Engines for ship propulsion and powerplants" Target Global,
Netherlands, 2012
[www.mariendiesels.co.uk]
[www.cimac.com]
[www.mandieselturbo.com/lowspeed]
[www.wartsila.com/en/media/articles]
[www.hercules-c.com]