MEACS

SE- III—PAPER 1
C/E DAVID A FLANAGAN

LAYOUT OF ENGINE ROOM

• Introduction
• We must have heard/read about the engine room of the ship and layout
of components on various platform. We have also learnt about the
engine control room. In this article we will take a look at the engine room
platforms in a serial order starting from the bottom most platform. The
various platforms are central to the arrangement of various kinds of
machinery and equipment.
• A junior cadet should know thoroughly about the placement of various
machines even before going on board and hence this is taught during pre-sea
training and other academic courses. Here is an aid to gain more of this
knowledge and the next few articles will provide a bird’s eye view of the
various platforms which form a central part of the machinery arrangement in
a ship’s engine room
• A schematic sketch of the bottom platform will also help you go get a quick
understanding of what is being talked about in this article so take a thorough
look at that sketch along with reading this article.
• HEAVY OIL TRANSFER PP
• DIESEL OIL TRANSFER PP FIRE PP FIRE &G/S PP BALLAST PUMPS MAIN SEA WATER PP ENGINE ROOM BOTTOM PLATFORM

• FUEL OIL DRAIN TANK PORT BILGE WELL STBD BILGE WELL

• LUBE OIL DRAIN TANK

• FWG EJECTOR PUMP

• BOILER FEED PUMPS

MAIN ENGINE M/E LUBE OIL COOLER

• M/E AIR COOLER CLEAN PP

• SLUDGE TANK CLEAN DRAIN TANK

• BILGE PUMP
• STUFFING BOX DRAIN TANK

• SLUDGE PP CENTRAL OR FLYWHEEL BILGE WELL

• M/E FLYWHEEL

• SCAVENGE DRAIN TANK LUBE OIL PUMPS

• OILY WATER SEPARATOR

• BILGE TANK STERN TUBE LUBE OIL PUMPS

PROPELLER SHAFT STERN TUBE STORAGE TANK

• STERN TUBE FRESH WATER TANK

• STERN TUBE

• AFT BILGE WELL

Here are some of the machineries found on the bottom platform of the Engine room
Various pumps including :
• Main sea water pumps
• Auxiliary sea water pumps-Fire Pump and Fire and G/S pump
• Main ballast pumps
• Heavy oil transfer pump
• Diesel oil transfer pump
• Lube oil transfer pump
• Stern tube lube oil pumps
• Main engine lube oil pumps
• ME Air cooler clean pump
• ME Lube oil cooler
• Bilge pump
• Sludge pump
• Fresh water generator ejector pumps
• Boiler feed pumps
• Tanks
• filters
• Main sea water pumps are used to cool Fresh water coolers
• Ballast pumps are used to fill and empty ballast tanks. (ballasting
and de-ballasting)
• Fire pumps are used to supply sea water to hepl extinguish a fire if
needed
• Fire and G/S pump is used for general purpose requirement
• Diesel oil and Heavy oil transfer pumps are used to transfer fuel for
consumption and use of the Main engine and Aux engines
• Sludge pumps are used to transfer sludge internally to separate
tanks or ashore to reception facility.
• Oily water separator is used to separate out any oil particles in the
bilge water while discharging bilge water overboard. It gives an
alarm if more than 15ppm limit is reached of any dirt or oil content
is reached. As soon as the alarm is sounded, it either stops the
operation of discharging overboard or bypasses the flow back to the
bilge tank.
• There are lots of fluids that need storage space on a ship, and
hence there are different kinds of tanks meant for such
storage. Given below is a list of tanks that you would normally
find on the bottom platform of a ship
• Fuel oil drain tank
• Sludge tank
• Lube oil drain tank
• Clean drain tank
• Scavenge drain tank
• Stuffing Box oil drain tank.
• Bilge holding tank.
• Sterntube storage tank
• Stern tube fresh water tank
• Bilge or Bilge wells
• The bilge is the lowest part of a ship where the bottom curves up to meet the sides. The water
that collects there is also called bilge. Since bilge is sometimes dirty and smelly, On a large ship,
some water inevitably ends up in the part that's below the water line, the bilge or the Bilge wells
• Basically all leakage oil and sludges along with engine room wash water get
collected in the spaces known as bilge wells. However to avoid pollution and
maintain cleanliness of the engine room. All oil and sludges are channelled into
separate tanks or cleaned on the spot. As far a possible only clean water is
allowed to flow into the Bilges.
• Bilge pump is used to transfer all bilges from various bilge wells to the Bilge tank
• There are normally 4 bilge wells inside the engine room as follow
• Aft bilge well
• Port side bilge well
• Starboard bilge well
• Central or Flywheel bilge well
• Auxiliary Machinery
• Auxiliary machinery does not directly help in ship propulsion
but is very important to carry out related tasks without which
it would be literally impossible to run a ship smoothly. are
some of the auxiliary machineries found on the bottom
platform of a vessel
• Oil water separator
• Cofferdam and Drain Tanks
• What do you mean by cofferdam?
• To avoid the mixing of two different liquids a void
space/empty space is provided between two tanks. This
prevents any accidental intermixing of two different liquids
due to leaking.
• You can expected to find the following pumps and Auxiliary machinery on the Middle platform of the ship’s engine room:

• Auxiliary Machinery
• The following auxiliary machinery can be expected to be found at the middle level of the engine room
• Auxiliary Engines /Generators
• Main air compressor
• Auxiliary / topping air compressor
• Emergency air compressor.
• Control air compressor
• Emergency air bottle
• Auxiliary air blower for main engine.
• Heavy oil purifiers
• Lube oil Purifiers
• Aux Blowers

• PUMPS
• Main engine supply and booster pump
• Central Fresh water pumps
• Central fresh water Coolers
• Sewage treatment plant
• Jacket water pumps
• Fresh water generator
• Purifier heaters
• Main and Aux engine fuel oil heatersSpare piston rod
• Spare cylinder head
• Spare cylinder liner
• Spare propeller
• Spare tail shaft
• Fresh water hydrophore and pumps
• ENGINE ROOM MIDDLE PLATFORM

• SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT JACKET WATER PUMPS CENTRAL FRESH WATER PUMPS
• FRESH WATER COOLERS

• GENERATORS FWG GENERATORS

• MAIN ENGINE
• FUEL OIL SUPPLY
AND BOOSTER PUMPS

HEAVY OIL PURIFIERS MAIN AIR COMPRESSORS

EMCY AIR COMPRESSOR
SERVICE AIR BOTTLE
AUXILIARY BLOWERS
FOR MAIN ENGINE MAIN AIR BOTTLES

LUB OIL PURIFIERS

AUX ENGINE LUB OIL PURIFIER HYDROPHORE

• Why are Generators not installed on the Bottom platform of the engine room?
• In case of any flooding due to sea water leakage or pipe or hull rupture, sea water
will enter into the Generator and cause it to malfunction and thus lead to loss of
power to the ship and emergency operations
• Air Bottles
• Main air bottles contain air at a pressure of (25 -30 )kg/cm2. These bottles provide
air for the starting of main engine. Compressed air from the air bottle is taken and
pressure reduced to (6-8) kg/cm2 by the pressure reducing valve and this air is used
for control and service purposes. As per regulations, the air in one of the main air
bottle with other air bottle closed and with out the compressor running should be
enough to give at least 12 continuous KICKS / MOVEMENTS to the main engine .
• Mainly vertical air bottles are used for less space consumption.
• Emergency air bottle is used to start the emergency generator in case of power
failure and gives control air for the QCV (quick closing valve).
• What is a Hydrophore System?
• It is used to maintain the pressure of the water supplied to the
different parts of the ship at various heights to keep the
constant pressure of water in all lines and at all floors of the ship
• Tanks
• Main engine crank case lube oil tank
• Diesel oil settling tank
• Diesel oil service tank
• Heavy oil settling tank
• Heavy oil service tank
• Mixing column
• Cylinder lube oil storage tank
• Engine room over head crane
• This section will explain some of the paraphernalia found at the Top
platform
• Control room
• Cylinder lub oil daily tank
• Jacket water expansion tank
• Incinerator
• Hot water calorifier
• Domestic fridge compressors
• Aircondition compressors
• Hot well
• Workshop

• What is the Jacket Cooling Water Expansion Tank?

• Expansion tanks are provided for venting of gas, air or vapour formed in the jacket cooling water line,
which has to be released.
• Expansion tank makes up the losses that occur due to evaporation in the jacket cooling space in the
engine. The make up water is provided in the expansion tank. It also provides the vent to trap any
vacuum or vapour due to evaporation or leakage /cracks in the closed cycle lines.
• Low level alarm is fitted in the expansion tank to give alarm when the level of the water reaches the low
line due to leakage in the pipe or cylinder liner break down. Expansion tank also consists of a sight glass
to observe the water level in the tank.
• .
• What is an Incinerator?
• Burning of waste oil, sludge, cotton waste is carried out using the incinerator .The waste oil
which is obtained from the scavenge drain tank, sludge from the purifier and oil water
separator cannot be disposed overboard so the incinerator is used to burn this oil. Plastic is
not burnt in it because it would cause air pollution.
• What is Hot Well?
• Hot Well recollects the steam after the work is done and it is condensed. Boiler water tank
is known as the hot well because boiler feed pump takes suction from the hot well and
gives it to the boiler through feed check valve. It can be called by three different names,
they are:
• Hot well - because the water collected is hot
• Cascade tank - because it collects the water from the condenser
• Observation tank - because it is used for observe for any oil or dirt entering the system
• If any traces of oil are found in the system, it indicates that there is a crack in the steam
heating line in side the fuel oil tanks. A sight glass is placed to observe the traces of oil or
dirt present in the system.
• If oil is present in the system then it forms a coating in tubes of the boiler, which may lead
to lesser heat transfer to the water in the boiler.
• Ships are mainly classified into the following types:
• Container Ships.
• Bulk Carrier.
• Tanker Ships.
• Passenger Ships.
• Naval Ships.
• Offshore Ships.
• Special Purpose Ships.
• M.V.MOTOR VESSEL
• DIESEL ENGINE PROPULSION
• 1a) 2-STROKE DIESEL ENGINE---SLOW SPEED ENGINE
• Forced Suction/compression(one stroke)—Power and
exhaust(second stroke)
• Propeller shaft is directly connected to the engine
• Constant pitch propeller is used
• Speed of the ship is controlled by changing the speed of the
engine
• Reversing is done by changing the direction of rotation of the
engine.
• 1 b) 4-stroke Diesel engine---medium to high speed
• Propeller shaft is connected to the engine via a gear box
• Speed of the ship is controlled by changing the pitch of the
Controllable pitch propeller ( CPP )
• Reversing is done by changining the pitch of the controllable
pitch propeller

• 1c) 2-stroke dual fuel engine—runs on both HFO and LNG

Cargo boil off gas is used as a second fuel in LNG Carriers-Diesl
Electric propulsion—Electric motor is used for propulsion
• Propeller shaft is connected to the electric Motor
• Speed of the ship is controlled by controlling the speed of the
motor
• Reversing is controlled by rotating the propeller assembly
• 2. S.S STEAM SHIP
• i) Reciprocating Steam engine
• Ii) Steam Turbines

Steam turbines are found on Nuclear powered Naval ships

(Nuclear reactor heats the water to produce steam. Steam drives
the turbines.
DUAL FUEL TURBINES---Cargo boil OFF gas is used as fuel for the
Boilers which in turn create steam to drive the turbines.
Gas Turbines are used as the Main engine for propulsion of Naval
ships and some passenger ships.
• Main Engine Plants and supporting systems
• Diesel engine working principle-Manuals, Troubleshooting etc
• Starting system
• Fuel oil system
• Lube oil system
• Cooling water system
• Control devices-Governors, Reversing, etc
• Operations-Standby, starting, reversing , Maneovering, Full
speed,
• Safety systems—Alarms, etc
• Bridge control system
• What is the purpose of classification of ships?
• The objective of ship classification is to verify the structural
strength and integrity of essential parts of the ship's hull and
its appendages, and the reliability and function of the
propulsion and steering systems, power generation and those
other features and auxiliary systems which have been built
into the ship ...
 Some frequently asked questions
• 1. Name at least 5 components/machinery found on the Bottom
platform and explain what each one is used for?
• 2. What is the function of the Bilge pump and Oily water
separator?
• 3. What is a “cofferdam” used for?
• 4. Name at least 5 components/machinery found on the Middle
platform and explain what each one is used for?
• 5. Why is the Generator or Auxiliary engine not placed on the
Bottom platform?
• 6. What is the purpose of “Incinerator”?
• 7. What is a Hot well?
• 8. Explain the classification of ship as per propulsion plant
• 9. What is the purpose of Classification?
• 10. What is a Hydrophore system.