16 - Medium speed engines—introduction

Abstract

The market for medium speed diesel engines has grown significantly in the past decade, both at the design stage and through the in-service support of advanced monitoring and diagnostic systems. New designs and upgraded versions of established models have maintained the dominance of medium speed four-stroke diesel engines in the propulsion of smaller ships as well as larger specialist tonnage such as cruise vessels, car/passenger ferries, and ro-ro freight carriers. Significant strides have been made in improving the reliability and durability of medium speed engines in the past decade, both at the design stage and through the in-service support of advanced monitoring and diagnostic systems. Former weak points in earlier generations of medium speed engines have been eradicated in new models that have benefited from finite element method calculations in designing heavily loaded components. The chapter discusses designing modern medium speed engines and presents some basic concepts that were adopted by the design team.