The “black-box” function, well known from the aviation industry, is now introduced to the marine diesel industry. For the first time in history it is possible to find out the causal connections behind a combustion alarm. This unique function is a standard function of Cylmate. Thanks to this analysis tool weak points and worn components behind an engine fault can be found and future similar fault can be avoided.
Cylmate has the capacity to continuously record all measured engine combustion data. As soon as Cylmate is detecting a deviation from normal behaviour the complete content of the latest 68 strokes will be stored as a file at the hard disk of the Cylmate Operator Station. The file will contain a complete Performance Alarm History Report and the report can then be used for later off-line analysis on board or it can be sent the home office for expert analysis.
The stored file will include values of all important combustion parameters that were present during 60 strokes before the alarm, during the alarm stroke and during 7 strokes after the alarm stroke itself. The stored file will include trends, P-alfa, dP/dalfa and P-volume complete graphs for deviations of the combustion parameter.
The Performance Alarm History Report file is opened and analyzed by the Cylmate Viewer, which is an indispensable tool in order to find the reason behind a combustion alarm. The Cylmate Viewer is an independent viewer that freely can be used in any PC using Window 2000 or XP. The viewer (see picture to the right) has the same appearance as the displays of Cylmate Operator Station. The main difference is the push buttons at the lower part of the displays. The push buttons are of the same types that are used by all video recorders.
By means of those push buttons one can play the Performance Alarm History Report like a movie forward and backward in real time or step the movie forward and backward stroke by stroke. In this way one can check what happened before the alarm, at the alarm and after the alarm.
Was the scavenging pressure ok? Was the ignition angle stable before the alarm? Was there any change in the power? Had the fuel rack constant index? And so on. There will never be uncertain factors around a combustion fault anymore. Cylmate Viewer will in detail show the development of a fault and that will simplify the understanding of the mechanism that led to the combustion fault. Based on this knowledge, future alarms of this kind can be avoided.