The No. 5 cylinder liner on a ship's main engine was found to have a crack during inspections. Upon further inspection, a crack penetrating both the cooling and heat-contact surfaces of the liner top was discovered. Similar issues have been occurring frequently on other vessels. The crack originated from a minute processing scratch on the internal bore cooling pipe top hole, which experienced a decrease in mechanical strength during the liner casting process. The area experiences great thermal stress, causing the pre-existing scratch to develop into a crack that spread to the liner material.
The No. 5 cylinder liner on a ship's main engine was found to have a crack during inspections. Upon further inspection, a crack penetrating both the cooling and heat-contact surfaces of the liner top was discovered. Similar issues have been occurring frequently on other vessels. The crack originated from a minute processing scratch on the internal bore cooling pipe top hole, which experienced a decrease in mechanical strength during the liner casting process. The area experiences great thermal stress, causing the pre-existing scratch to develop into a crack that spread to the liner material.
The No. 5 cylinder liner on a ship's main engine was found to have a crack during inspections. Upon further inspection, a crack penetrating both the cooling and heat-contact surfaces of the liner top was discovered. Similar issues have been occurring frequently on other vessels. The crack originated from a minute processing scratch on the internal bore cooling pipe top hole, which experienced a decrease in mechanical strength during the liner casting process. The area experiences great thermal stress, causing the pre-existing scratch to develop into a crack that spread to the liner material.
The No. 5 cylinder liner on a ship's main engine was found to have a crack during inspections. Upon further inspection, a crack penetrating both the cooling and heat-contact surfaces of the liner top was discovered. Similar issues have been occurring frequently on other vessels. The crack originated from a minute processing scratch on the internal bore cooling pipe top hole, which experienced a decrease in mechanical strength during the liner casting process. The area experiences great thermal stress, causing the pre-existing scratch to develop into a crack that spread to the liner material.
ME198 Main Engine Cylinder Liner Trouble Technical committee
1. Trouble machinery
MAN – B&W 6S80MCE
19,100PS x 68 rpm
2. Outline of breakdown
While performing inspections during voyage in M0 operation, leakage at the top of the main engine No. 5 cylinder was discovered. The leakage was surmised to be occurring from the crack extending from the leaking area to the liner top. To replace the liner with a spare, the main engine was stopped and piston removal was carried out. Upon inspection, a crack mutually penetrating the cooling-side and heat-contact surface of the No. 5 cylinder liner top was confirmed. Although this was the first liner crack discovered on this ship, similar trouble has been occuring to a large extent among other vessels. The crack was originating from the internal Bore cooling pipe top hole cooling surface on the No. 5 cylinder liner bow-side and extending along a downward and upward direction. The length of the crack was 530mm from the top edge of the flange on the cooling surface side, and 460mm on the heat- contact surface side. The crack on the heat-contact surface side was a breakthrough crack. (refer to Fig. 1)
3. Causes
No problematic points were confirmed to the operating specifications of the main engine at time of damage occurrence. In an examination of the liner heat-contact surface, apart from the crack, traces of scuffing were not confirmed. Furthermore, there was no formation of green rust on the surface of the cooling surface. Judging from the location of the No. 5 cylinder liner crack occurring as it is on the internal Bore cool- ing pipe top hole cooling water surface, the crack is assumed to have occurred in the following way. As manufacture of the internal bore cooling pipe employs solid-drawn steel processing, a minute processing scratch occurred to the tube wall at this time. Furthermore, at time of liner casting, as the internal bore cooling pipe became hot, the carbon within the steel of the tube wall surface was elimi- nated, resulting in a mechanical strength decrease of the internal bore cooling pipe surface. The vicinity of the internal Bore cooling tube top hole is a location in the liner where greatest thermal stress occurs. Therefore, mechanical strength decreased and a heavy stress was focused onto the con- cerned part where a minute scratch existed thus forming a crack. The crack on this tube wall then spread to the liner base material.
1 Fig. 1 Location of crack occurrence and condition
