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Hydraulic governors

A simple mechanical governor must overcome

friction in the linkages and exert a control force. These forces
act in different directions depending upon whether the load is
increasing or decreasing. This in fact produces a dead band in
which the governor will not exert any fuel control. By having
the rotating weights only move a pilot valve which directs oil
to or from a servo. The control force and friction forces are
eliminated and hence the dead band is removed. The simple
servo is however unstable because the pilot valve allows full
oil to the servo or it drains the servo thus giving full fuel on
or off conditions. Stability could be provided by making the
value larger than the servo supply ports. This would however
reintroduce a dead band. The solution is to provide feed back
from the fuel linkage and this comes about with speed droop.
Graph of % speed against engine load
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Speed control is by varying the main spring tension

acting on the flywheels.

Feed back is provided by means of a lever

connecting the servo cylinder pilot valve and rotating
weights. Consider a load increase, the engine slows down and
the rotating weights move inwards lowering that end of the
floating lever. This causes the pilot valve to open allowing oil
to the servo. This rises increasing the fuel and lifting that end
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of the floating lever. This raises the pilot valve until it closes
the port to the servo cylinder. The engine will now runs with
increased fuel on increased load but at a reduced speed. This
provides stability but the engine cannot run at the same
speed for all loads i.e. it is isochronous.
It is possible to introduce a mechanism which will
provide a further slight fuel change to restore the engine
speed to normal. This is known as compensation.

The compensating governor allows the engine to

operate at a constant speed no matter what the load.
Adjustment can be considered in two stages. Compensation
and speed droop. In practice these stages operate together
and a number of times during each load change. Consider a
load increase, the engine speed slows , rotating weights
move inwards and the pilot valve is opened. Oil flows to the
servo which rises increasing the fuel. At the same time the
transmitting piston is moved downwards forcing oil to the
receiving piston which rises compressing the top centering
spring . this also lifts the pilot valve shutting off further oil to
the servo. The engine now operates with increased load and
increased fuel but at a reduced speed.
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Compensation takes place to provide a further slight

fuel change to return the speed to normal. The centering
spring forces the receiving piston downwards and oil escapes
through the adjustable valve.. This lowers that end of the
floating lever until both centering springs are equally loaded
and that end of the floating lever is in its original position.
The pilot valve is open slightly allowing oil to the servo which
gives a further slight increase in fuel. The engine speeds up,
the rotating weights move out and the pilot valve is lifted
until it is closed. The engine now operates with increased
load, increased fuel but a the same original speed. Engines
connected together by gearing or electrically are required to
operate at the same speed. The loads they take will depend
upon the values of their speed droops. Ideally both governors
should have the same speed droop but they will never have
identical values of droop. Slight variations will exist due to
mechanical considerations. This is not a problem for most
operating situations
When setting engine systems it is usual to have one
engine governor as the master and the others as the slave.
The actual practicalities will vary depending upon the
installation.
Load sharing
Engines share load increase in the inverse ratios of their
speed droop. i.e. the lower the value of droop the greater the
share of the load increase taken
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