Experimental Measurement of the Time-Based Development of Oil Film Thickness, Lubricating Film Extent and Lubricant Transport in Crosshead Engines

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a test apparatus which simulates the lubrication of large, slow, two-stroke marine engines in which the ring pack is lubricated by means of injectors supplying lubricant above the piston. The equipment is able to control lubricant injection parameters (volume, frequency, etc.) and employs capacitance based lubricant film thickness transducers to allow instantaneous oil film thickness and film extent around the compression ring to be investigated on a stroke-by-stroke basis. It is demonstrated that the equipment can be used to study the development of lubricating films on successive strokes under differing injection strategies. Time varying changes in lubricating film thickness and film extent have been measured and the rate at which the lubricant spreads across the cylinder wall has also been investigated. It has been observed that increases in oil-film thickness are strongly linked to the transition from starved to fully-flooded inlet conditions and that net lubricant transport rates along different parts of the cylinder can be evaluated from measured data.

Keywords

• piston ring-pack lubrication
• oil film thickness measurement
• IC engine lubrication