2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16
Shipping companies sometimes order such powerful machines as supertankers and container ships. They require ever stronger installations, among which is (and occupies the most important place) the motor. The most powerful engine in the world is currently manufactured in Finland by a company called Wartsila. It is a diesel internal combustion unit with a power of up to 100,000 kW.
About company
Wartsila is one of the largest companies in the production of marine engines of record power. Since the 90s of the last century, she began the development of linear marine motors, called Wartsila-Sulzer-RTA96-C. It is a two-stroke and the most powerful engine in the world.
Some models of the line have a similar design. The difference is in the number of cylinders. The customer can choose the option of the unit with the presence of 6 to 14cylinders.
Cylinders and their quantity
To understand the grandeur of the design, one can imagine that the diameter of the cylinder alone is 960 millimeters, and the piston stroke is 2.5 meters. As for the working volume of the part, it has 1820 liters. More than 100 container ships are equipped with such units, on which from 8 to 20 cylinders are installed. Such vessels, capable of carrying cargo up to 10,000 tons, can easily reach speeds of over 46 kilometers per hour.
The world's most powerful 11-cylinder engine was first built in 1997. The manufacturer was the Japanese Diesel United. And after 5 years in Finland they announced that it was possible to produce a unit with 14 cylinders. It is this motor that remains the record to this day.
The most powerful engine in the world
This model has 108,920 horsepower. The working volume of the generator reaches 25,480 liters.
At first glance, the low liter capacity may seem strange: for 1 liter it is approximately 4.3 "horses". If you take the most powerful engine in the world in a car, you will find that the designers have learned how to get much more than 100 horsepower in it. But in the case of the ship unit, such a low indicator was chosen for a reason. The engine here works slowly - at maximum power, the shaft speed is only 102 rpm (for comparison: on automobile diesel engines, from 3000 to 5000 rpm are observed). Due to this, marine diesel achievesgood gas exchange. And if you add a low piston speed to this, you get a very good efficiency.
In any mode, the specific fuel consumption varies from 118 to 126 grams per "horse" per hour. This is more than twice as low as passenger diesels.
Compared to automotive units, it should be added that ships use heavy marine diesel fuel, which has a much lower energy content.
So, the weight of the 14-cylinder unit is 2300 tons, excluding various technical fluids. The crankshaft alone weighs approximately 300 tons. This top diesel engine is 26.7 meters long and 13.2 meters high.
Each cylinder has a huge valve. 3 more similar small parts that play the role of injectors in automotive units are used to inject fuel into the cylinder.
The valve is exhaust. Exhaust gases from it are sent to the manifold, and then to the turbochargers. The latter drive air to the windows cut out at the bottom of the cylinder, which open when the piston is at bottom dead center.
The force from the piston to the crankshaft is transmitted using a crosshead device, thereby increasing the operation of the diesel engine.
The main materials from which marine engine parts are made are the same cast iron and steel.
Prospects
Meanwhile, constructors don't stopon their already impressive results. Apparently, for them, the answer to the question of which engine is better is obvious. The one to be created. There are already rumors about the development of an 18-cylinder diesel engine for ships.
In the meantime, we can summarize the most impressive features of the 14-cylinder version of the engine:
- weight excluding fuels and lubricants is 2300 tons;
- unit length - 27 meters;
- height - 13.4 meters;
- peak power at 102 rpm - 108,920 horsepower;
- fuel consumption - over 6283 liters per hour.
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