Optimize Fuel Consumption and Ship Safety
Geislinger presents a Power Monitoring System based on Twist Measurement
With discussion about greenhouse gas emissions and the reduction of fuel consumption it is important to know the engine output. Geislinger has adapted its proven Geislinger Monitoring for couplings and dampers to measure the engine output.
Geislinger is widely known for compact and reliable couplings and dampers for large diesel and gas engines, their unique sales proposition its outstanding torsional vibration know-how and durability.
With this vast know-how, Geislinger is able to precisely calculate the torsional vibration behaviour of propulsion systems. These values are the base for the Geislinger monitoring, which was first presented in 1988. It is aimed to monitor the damper or coupling condition and has been improved a couple of times, leading to the current model Geislinger Monitoring Mark 4. The system was now adapted to measure engine output and monitor the vibration behaviour of the drive shaft. In this way the Geislinger Monitoring product range was enlarged, leading to four different versions available:
- Geislinger Damper Monitoring
- Geislinger Coupling Monitoring
- Geislinger Misfiring Monitoring (Free-End Monitoring).
- Geislinger Power Monitoring (New)
Function:
As the name indicates the system provides a reliable power monitoring. As in most of the merchant ships steel shaft lines are used, the Geislinger Power Monitoring it is based on twist measuring. The steel shafts – in spite of their size – provide certain elasticity and thus twist under engine load and torsional vibrations. The Geislinger Power Monitoring measures this behaviour via sturdy measuring gear rings and robust, reliable inductive sensors. Precise algorithms detect the torsional vibrations and provide an exact overview of static twist – the engine output – and shaft line vibrations. This simple and compact concept avoids error-prone radio based signal transmission as well as strain gauges.
| less transport volume | same transport volume | ||||
reduction | speed | fuel cons. | gain | requ. fleet | fuel cons. | gain |
nominal | 25 | 100 % | 0% | 100% | 100% | 0% |
5% | 23,8 | 82% | 4% | 105% | 86% | 4% |
10% | 22,5 | 67% | 7% | 111% | 75% | 7% |
17% (opt.) | 20,7 | 53% | 9% | 119% | 63% | 9% |
Source: Uwe Hollenbach, Hilmar Klug, Friedrich Mewis, in: Container Vessels – Potential for Improvement in Hydrodynamic Performance. 10th Internationales Symposium on Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures – PRADS 2007 | ||||||
Usage:
The Geislinger Power Monitoring is perfectly suitable for retrofitting on existing propulsion systems as well as for new ships. It provides the master an easy tool for economic ship operation: If the speed is reduced it is possible to directly see the influence on the engine output – 20 percent speed reduction result in almost 45% less engine output. This can be directly converted into fuel savings. In such a way it is possible to optimize the overall fuel consumption. The Geislinger Power Monitoring is also suitable to effortlessly detect increased fuel consumption due to unfavourable tides or natural cover and thus enables the master to take the suitable countermeasures. This is especially important for speed controlled engines.
Benefits
A big bonus of the Geislinger Power Monitoring is that it not only provides a precise power measurement onboard, it additionally monitors the vibration behaviour of the shaft line. This is done continuously and over the whole length – not only on one spot.
As ships become more and more complex and ship staff becomes a short resource, this is a safety element which is highly important. In this way critical load conditions are detected and an alarm signal is transferred to the ship alarm system. Thus damage of the propulsion system and related ship accidents can be avoided.
References
All these qualities were arguments so convincing, that the Geislinger Power Monitoring has already been twelve times before its initial market introduction and further installations are already scheduled for the near future.
Geislinger is the world’s leading supplier for torsional vibration dampers and elastic couplings for high-output diesel and gas engines. With its worldwide subsidiaries and vast know-how, Geislinger is acknowledged as development partner and problem solver. This innovative environment permanently leads to refined solutions like the Gesilco fibre composite products and new coupling developments as the double spring couplings.
Table1:
Foto1: Geislinger Twist Gauge Function principle
Foto2: Geislinger Damper mounted to crankshaft
Contact:
Geislinger GmbH
Hans-Peter Brötzner
Sales & Marketing
Tel.: +43 662 66 999-958
Fax: +43 662 66 999-40