Operational Information The Two Stroke Crosshead Engine The Cylinder Liner

Operational Information
The Two Stroke Crosshead Engine

The Cylinder Liner
•The cylinder liner forms the cylindrical space in which the
piston reciprocates. The reasons for manufacturing the liner
separately from the cylinder block (jacket) in which it is located
are as follows;
•The liner can be manufactured using a superior material to the
cylinder block. While the cylinder block is made from a grey cast
iron, the liner is manufactured from a cast iron alloyed with
chromium, vanadium and molybdenum. (cast iron contains
graphite, a lubricant. The alloying elements help resist corrosion
and improve the wear resistance at high temperatures.)
•.
• The cylinder liner will wear with use, and
therefore may have to be replaced. The cylinder
jacket lasts the life of the engine.
• At working temperature, the liner is a lot hotter
than the jacket. The liner will expand more and
is free to expand diametrically and lengthwise. If
they were cast as one piece, then unacceptable
thermal stresses would be set up, causing
fracture of the material.
• Less risk of defects. The more complex the
casting, the more difficult to produce a
homogenous casting with low residual stresses
• The Liner will get tend to get very hot
during engine operation as the heat
energy from the burning fuel is transferred
to the cylinder wall. So that the
temperature can be kept within acceptable
limits the liner is cooled.
• Cylinder liners from older lower
powered engines had a uniform
wall thickness and the cooling
was achieved by circulating
cooling water through a space
formed between liner and jacket.
The cooling water space was
sealed from the scavenge space
using 'O' rings and a telltale
passage between the 'O' rings led
to the outside of the cylinder
block to show a leakage.
• To increase the power of the engine for a given number of cylinders,
either the efficiency of the engine must be increased or more fuel
must be burnt per cycle. To burn more fuel, the volume of the
combustion space must be increased, and the mass of air for
combustion must be increased. Because of the resulting higher
pressures in the cylinder from the combustion of this greater mass
of fuel, and the larger diameters, the liner must be made thicker at
the top to accommodate the higher hoop stresses, and prevent
cracking of the material.
• If the thickness of the material is increased, then it stands to reason
that the working surface of the liner is going to increase in
temperature because the cooling water is now further away.
Increased surface temperature means that the material strength is
reduced, and the oil film burnt away, resulting in excessive wear and
increased thermal stressing.
• The solution is to bring the cooling water closer
to the liner wall, and one method of doing this
without compromising the strength of the liner is
to use tangential bore cooling.
• Holes are bored from the underside of the flange
formed by the increase in liner diameter. The
holes are bored upwards and at an angle so that
they approach the internal surface of the liner
at a tangent. Holes are then bored radially
around the top of the liner so that they join with
the tangentially bored holes.
• On some large bore, long stroke engines it was found
that the undercooling further down the liner was taking
place. Why is this a problem? Well, the hydrogen in the
fuel combines with the oxygen and burns to form water.
Normally this is in the form of steam, but if it is cooled it
will condense on the liner surface and wash away the
lube oil film. Fuels also contain sulphur. This burns in the
oxygen and the products combine with the water to form
sulphuric acid. If this condenses on the liner surface
(below 140º) then corrosion can take place. Once the oil
film has been destroyed then wear will take place at an
alarming rate. One solution is to insulate the outside of
the liner so that there was a reduction in the cooling
effect. On The latest engines the liner is only cooled at
the very top.
• The photo shows a
cylinder liner with the
upper and mid insulation
bands known as
"Haramaki"
• Although Haramaki is a
type of Japanese armour,
the word also means
literally " Stomach or Body
Warmer". i.e an insulator.
• Cylinder lubrication: Because the cylinder is separate
from the crankcase there is no splash lubrication as on a
trunk piston engine. Oil is supplied through drillings in the
liner. Grooves machined in the liner from the injection
points spread the oil circumferentially around the liner
and the piston rings assist in spreading the oil up and
down the length of the liner. The oil is of a high alkalinity
which combats the acid attack from the sulphur in the
fuel. The latest engines time the injection of oil using a
computer which has inputs from the crankshaft position,
engine load and engine speed. The correct quantity of oil
can be injected by opening valves from a pressurized
system, just as the piston ring pack is passing the
injection point.
Gauging a Liner
• As mentioned earlier, cylinder liners will
wear in service. Correct operation of the
engine (not overloading, maintaining
correct operating temperatures) and
using the correct grade and quantity of
cylinder oil will all help to extend the life
of a cylinder liner. Wear rates vary, but
as a general rule, for a large bore engine
a wear rate of 0.05 - 0.1mm/1000 hours
is acceptable. The liner should be
replaced as the wear approaches 0.8 -
1% of liner diameter. The liner is gauged
at regular intervals to ascertain the wear
rate.
• It has been known for ships to go for
scrap after 20 + years of operation with
some of the original liners in the engine.
• As well as corrosive attack, wear is caused by
abrasive particles in the cylinder (from bad
filtration/purification of fuel or from particles in
the air), and scuffing (also known as micro
seizure or adhesive wear). Scuffing is due to a
breakdown in lubrication which results in
localised welding between points on the rings
and liner surface with subsequent tearing of
microscopic particles . This is a very severe form
of wear.

Operational Information The Two Stroke Crosshead Engine The Cylinder Liner

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