On-line power estimation of large diesel engines using acoustic emission and instantaneous crankshaft angular velocity

Abstract

It is of interest to be able to gauge the power output of an engine from sensors that do not interfere with engine performance and are non-invasive. Acoustic emission (AE) analysis is one such technique, whereby information can be obtained from sensors placed on the external surface of the engine, requiring very little preparation. This paper shows that there is a strong relationship between AE energy and the variation of the instantaneous crankshaft angular velocity (ICAV) waveform over the engine cycle for a range of engine loads and that both types of measurement give a good indication of engine power on a ‘per cylinder’ basis.

AE and shaft encoder signals were acquired from two large (>7 MW), low-speed, two-stroke, diesel engines over a range of power outputs. The ICAV waveform (inferred from the shaft encoder signals) for one engine cycle was found to give a resolution that showed compression and expansion strokes of each cylinder. The variance of this waveform was found to correlate well with the power output of the engine, a finding that is in accord with those of a number of other authors. Additionally, the AE energy associated with fuel injection/combustion during each cycle was also related to engine power output, a finding that has not explicitly been reported elsewhere.

It is shown that, by combining both the AE and the ICAV data, and accounting for differences in engine specification such as number of cylinders, the observations of the two engines can be generalized, in that both the standard deviation in the ICAV waveform and the AE energy generated during the injection/combustion phase increase with increasing engine power output. This relationship can therefore be used to indicate engine power per cylinder and hence indicate whether cylinders are performing poorly. Provided that sufficiently robust sensors are available, such measurements could be made on-line and included in a preventative maintenance plan.

Keywords

acoustic emission instantaneous crankshaft angular velocity marine diesel engine power estimation condition monitoring

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Zurita

Ågren

Randall

R. B.

Gao

Reconstruction of cylinder pressure time trace on a six-cylinder engine from acceleration measurements In Proceedings of the 23rd International Seminar on Modal analysis (ISMA 23), Leuven, Belgium, 10–12 September 1998, Vol. 3, pp. 1387–1394.

Gao

Randall

R. B.

Reconstruction of diesel engine cylinder pressure using a time domain smoothing technique

Mech. Systems and Signal Processing 1999, 13(5), 709–722.

Brown

T. S.

Neill

W. S.

Determination of engine cylinder pressures from crankshaft speed fluctuations In SAE International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, Michigan, 22–26 February 1992, SAE paper 920463, 1992, pp. 61–69.

Citron

S. J.

O'Higgens

J. E.

Chen

L. Y.

Cylinder by cylinder engine pressure and pressure torque waveform determination utilizing speed fluctuations In SAE International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, Michigan, 27 February-3 March 1989, SAE paper 890486, 1989, pp. 131–145.

Kimura

Terashima

Nakai

Yamada

Takeda

Diagnostic method for 2-stroke cycle diesel engine by measurement of vibration on cylinder-jacket - observation of change in normal vibration pattern

Bull Mech. Engng Soc. Jap. 1999, 27(2), 57–64.

Yang

Wang

Zhou

Yan

Fault detection in a diesel engine by analysing the instantaneous angular speed

Mech. Systems and Signal Processing 2001, 15(3), 549–564.

Azzoni

P. M.

Minelli

Flora

Serra

Indicated and load torque estimation using crankshaft angular velocity measurement In SAE International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, Michigan, 1–4 March 1999, SAE paper 1999–01-0543 1999, pp. 87–93.

Steel

J. A.

Reuben

R. L.

Recent developments in monitoring of engines using acoustic emission Invited paper in J. Strain Analysis (Special Issue on Acoustic Emission), 2005, 40(1), 45–57.

El Ghamry

Reuben

R. L.

Steel

J. A.

The development of automated pattern recognition and statistical feature isolation techniques for the diagnosis of reciprocating machinery faults using acoustic emission

Mech. Systems and Signal Processing 2003, 17(4), 805–823.

10.

Fog

T. L.

Condition monitoring and fault diagnosis in marine diesel engines. PhD Thesis, Technical University of Denmark, August 1998.

11.

El Ghamry

M. H.

Brown

E. R.

Ferguson

Gill

J. D.

Reuben

R. L.

Steel

J. A.

Scaife

Middleton

Gaseous air-fuel quality identification for a spark ignition gas engine using acoustic emission analysis In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Condition monitoring and diagnostic engineering management (COMADEM), Launceston, Australia, 8–11 December 1998, pp. 235–244.

12.

El Ghamry

Steel

J. A.

Reuben

R. L.

Indirect measurement of indicated power from diesel engines using acoustic emission

Mech. Systems and Signal Processing 2005, 19, 751–765.

13.

Fog

T. L.

Brown

E. R.

Hansen

H. S.

Madsen

L. B.

Sørensen

Hansen

E. R.

Steel

J. A.

Reuben

R. L.

Pedersen

P. S.

Exhaust valve leakage detection in large marine diesel engines In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Condition monitoring and diagnostic engineering management (COMADEM), Launceston, Australia, 8–11 December 1998, pp. 269–278.

14.

Fog

T. L.

Hansen

L. K.

Larsen

Hansen

H. S.

Madsen

L. B.

Sørensen

Hansen

E. R.

Pedersen

P. S.

On condition monitoring of exhaust valves in marine diesel engines In Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Neural networks for signal processing IX, Piscataway, New Jersey, 23–25 August 1999, pp. 554–563.

15.

Gill

J. D.

Reuben

R. L.

Scaife

Brown

E. R.

Steel

J. A.

Detection of diesel engine faults using acoustic emission In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Planned maintenance, reliability and quality, 2–3 April 1998, Oxford, 1998, Vol. 1, pp. 57–61.

16.

Jackson

Combustion in large diesel engines In Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Combustion, Institution of Mechanical Engineers and ASME, London, 1955, pp. 253–270.

17.

Bardou

Watremetz

Sidahmed

Early detection of leakage in outlet valves of high-power diesel engine using vibration analysis In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Machinery monitoring and diagnostics (IMMDC), Las Vegas, Nevada, 1991, pp. 249–253.

18.

Yang

Zhou

Diagnosis of moving components of internal combustion engines by analysing vibration signals

J. Mach. Vibr. 1996, 5, 163–169.

19.

Sorensen

Pedersen

P. S.

The intelligent engine and electronic products - a development status In Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress on Combustion engines (CIMAC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 18–21 May 1998, pp. 551–564.

20.

Sharkey

A. J. C.

Chandroth

G. O.

Sharkey

N. E.

Acoustic emission, cylinder pressure and vibration: A multisensor approach to robust fault diagnosis In Proceedings of the IEEE-INNS-ENNS International Joint Conference on Neural networks, Como, Italy, 24–27 July 2000, Vol. 6, pp. 223–228.

21.

Nivesrangsan

Cochrane

Steel

J. A.

Reuben

R. L.

AE mapping of engines for spatially located time series In Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Acoustic emission testing (EWGAE), Prague, Czech Republic, 11–13 September 2002, Vol. 2, pp. 51–58.

22.

Frances

A. K.

Gill

J. D.

Reuben

R. L.

Steel

J. A.

A study of the variability of acoustic emission signals from a medium size marine diesel engine under service conditions In Proceedings of the 16th International Congress on Condition monitoring and diagnostic engineering management (COMADEM), Växjö, Sweden, 27–29 August 2003, pp. 503–512.

23.

Nivesrangsan

Steel

J. A.

Reuben

R. L.

AE mapping of engines for spatially-located time series. Part I: Preliminary studies

Mech. Systems and Signal Processing 2005, 19, 1034–1054.

24.

Tinaut

F. V.

Melgar

Horillo

A. J.

Fernández

Monero

Faults detection in a reciprocating internal combustion engine from instantaneous engine speed In Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress on Combustion engines (CIMAC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 18–21 May 1998, pp. 629–638.

25.

Taraza

Henein

N. A.

Bryzik

The frequency analysis of the crankshaft's speed variation: A reliable tool for diesel engine diagnosis

Trans. ASME, J. Engng for Gas Turbines and Power 2001, 12, 428–432.

26.

Rizzoni

Diagnosis of individual cylinder misfires by signature analysis of crankshaft speed fluctuations In SAE International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, Michigan, 27 February-3 March 1989, SAE paper 890884 1989, pp. 1572–1580.

27.

Takats

Uhlir

Lukas

Running roughness measurement - tools for development and diagnostic In Proceedings of the 23rd World Congress on Combustion engine technology for ship propulsion, power generation, rail traction (CIMAC), Hamburg, Germany, 7–10 May 2001, Vol. 4, pp. 1340–1348.