An Experimental Study of Emission and Combustion Characteristics of Marine Diesel Engine in Case of Cylinder Valves Leakage

Presented paper shows the results of the laboratory tests on the relationship between throttling of both air intake duct and exhaust gas duct and a gaseous emission from the marine engine. The object of research is a laboratory, four-stroke, DI diesel engine, operated at loads from 50 kW to 250 kW at a constant speed equal to 750 rpm. During the laboratory tests over 50 parameters of the engine were measured with its technical condition recognized as a „working properly” and with simulated leakage of both air intake valve and exhaust gas valve on the second cylinder. The results of this laboratory research confirm that the leakage of cylinder valves causes no significant changes of the thermodynamic parameters of the engine. Simulated leakages through the inlet and exhaust valve caused a significant increase in fuel consumption of the engine. Valve leakages cause an increase of the exhaust gas temperature behind the cylinder with leakage and behind other cylinders. The exhaust gas temperature increase is relatively small and clearly visible only at low loads of the engine. The increase of the temperature and pressure of the charging air behind the intercooler were observed too. Charging air temperature is significantly higher during the engine operation with inlet valve leakage. The study results show significant increases of the CO, NOx and CO₂ emission for all the mentioned malfunctions. The conclusion is that the results of measurements of the composition of the exhaust gas may contain valuable diagnostic information about the technical condition of the air intake duct and the exhaust gas duct of the marine engine.