Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MARINE
DIESEL
ENGINE
S
Power Calculation
Power Cards
A power card is a graph of cylinder pressure against time, it was
originally drawn using a mechanically driven pen onto graph paper
mounted on a drum. The drum was rotated by string, via a cam on the
camshaft and pushrod. As the drum rotated the pen mounted on the
linkages was pressed up to the paper. For clarity the pen is released once
a single cycle has passed otherwise slight fluctuations in power demand
could lead to several cycles being superimposed on one another blurring
the image.
Compression curves
Shown above are typical power cards for 4 stroke engine. The lower one
shows the effect of improving turbocharger efficiency. That is some
mechanical effort is made by the charge air pressure lowering fuel
consumption. Poor timing can negate this effect.
Fault diagnosis
As indicated there are practical difficulties with use of the power
indicator instrument on a high speed four stroke engine. Therefore the
following is based around the two stroke
The light spring diagram For this, the spring is replaced with one of
much lower spring constant. In this way the operation at the lower
pressures, i.e. around bottom dead, may be examined. In particular this
gives indication of blocked or restricted scavenge and exhausts. To
further clarify, the motive effort for rotating the drum is often by hand so
only a small part at the end of the stroke is covered.
Scavenge port opens at 140 degrees after top dead and closes 140 degrees
before top dead.
Early injection
Late injection
Late injection
can be
caused by loss
of
compression,
insufficient
scavenging,
delayed timing, incorrect fuel condition and atomisation, undercooled
parts around the combustion space. It results in a condition called diesel
knock where the flame front travels rapidly down the liner to strike the
receding piston. In addition, leads to afterburning and high exhausts
Afterburning
Causes loss of power, smoke and high exhaust temperatures. Can lead to
damage to exhaust valves and seats as well as piston crowns. Fouled
turbocharger and waste heat recovery units. High cylinder temperatures
causes problems with lubrication