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The Crankshaft of the Marine Diesel Engine acts as the outlet of power from
the engine for supply to the huge propeller immersed in the sea which helps to
propel the ship forward it converts the up and down movement of the pistons
of the cylinder into continuous rotary motion which is transmitted further to
move the propeller shaft.
Construction:
it consists of crank-webs, crank-pins and journals along its length. The weight
of the crankshaft is supported by the main bearings at the journals.
Below picture shows the main components of the crank shaft.
Most of these forces have alternating patterns which gives rise to fatigue and
the materials used for construction need to have substantial Ultimate Tensile
Strength. Apart from that the other properties required in the material of a
crankshaft are wear resistance, tensile strength, and ductility.
The material for construction also depends on the speed on the engine and
slow speed marine diesel engines have crankshafts fabricated out of plain
carbon steel with a percentage of carbon lying between 0.2 & 0.4%, while the
alloy steels are used for engines having a relatively higher speed.
Fabrication of Crankshaft:
Crankshaft manufacture is a complex and elaborate process and the exact
procedure would vary with the type and size of the crankshaft under
consideration but a few things would be good to know
Fully-built Crankshafts: are those in which all the various components are
shrink-fitted after separate fabrication
Semi-built Crankshafts: are those in which several parts such as crank-
throw and pins are case out of a single piece .
Welded Crankshafts: are those in which the crank-shaft is made by
welding case web crank pins and half journal units.
Flanged Coupling Crankshafts: are made out in two pieces joined together
by flanged couplings
Crankshaft Deflection:
The crankshaft of the marine diesel engine is a huge bulky component which
should remain as straight as possible during operation, otherwise it could lead
to serious damage to the engine and the vessel.
The results are tabulated in a manner shown in the example table shown
below which represents the readings taken from a real engine.
You will note that the numbers in the first row represent the unit or cylinder
number and the first column shows the position at which those readings
are taken. The final row shows the difference between top and bottom
readings which gives the vertical misalignment of the shaft.
A majority of the people find that the graphical representation of data is more
appealing and easily understood, rather than a list of numbers hence we will
see how we can use the above data to plot the deflection curve. Take a look at
the deflection curve diagram first so that you can correlate to what you read
next.
As you can see above on the top is the crankshaft which shows the 7
units and the vertical misalignments written on top of each unit (these
values are taken from the last row of the table above)
A straight line is drawn beneath the crankshaft and the centre lines
from each unit are drawn downwards through this line. This now acts
as our basic infrastructure upon which to start plotting the deflection
curve.
Since the first deflection is -5.2 units (remember they are normally mm
unless otherwise specified), we plot this distance downwards from the
reference line on the centre line of unit 2 (not unit 1) and make the line
ab which is at an angle proportional to the deflection at a. This line is
further extended to intersect the centre line of the next unit.
A smooth curve is drawn between these points and the position of this curve
with respect to the base line XY gives an idea about the state of various
bearing. For example in this particular case you can easily make out that
bearing of units 1 and 2 are too far away from the base line and hence need
attention .
You must have realized by now that why only comparing the values of vertical
misalignment against the manufacturer’s specifications is not sufficient? This
is so because even if the values are within limits, the relative wear and tear
might be sufficient to cause too much misalignment hence this is a method to
be double sure about the crankshaft being aligned properly.
Sources:
http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/marine/articles/20969.aspx
http://www.motorera.com/dictionary/pics/c/crankshaft.gif
http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/marine/articles/23005.aspx?image=
7059