The World's Biggest Combustion Engine - Super Tanker!

[SUBMAN1]

The worlds biggest engine is the Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C. It is a turbo charged two stroke diesel engine and it is the most powerful and efficient low revolution engine in the world today.

The Wartsila-Sulser is manufactured by the Aioi Works in Japan and is part of Japans Diesel United Ltd engine manufacturers. Below is an 89 foot long 44 foot wide 12 cylinder engine, literally as big as a house !

What I find confusing is why they haven't actually built the ship around the engine ? How they actually get the 2000 ton engine out of the plant and moreover install an engine of this size into a ship makes the mind boggle.



These large engines are designed to power the worlds super oil tankers and large container ships. They are built to the ship owners preferences. They usually request an engine construction of a single unit and single propeller design for ease of maintenance, and not surprisingly any later troubleshooting. A single unit and single screw design has also proved over time to have a longer life span than double or even quad screws.



These engines are built in 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 cylinder configurations. All the engines are straight or 'inline'. The diameter of each cylinder is 3 foot 2 inches with a stroke of 8 foot 2 inches. The 12 cylinder version weighs in at 2000 metric tons and delivers 90,000 Horse Power at 100 Revs per minute, with best fuel economy at 53,244 HP at 90 Rpm.When I mention economy, the 14 cylinder engine for example with a displacement of 25,480 Litres ( 1.56 million cubic inches ) burns up 1,660 gallons of crude ('bunker') oil every hour.

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The Mathematical calculation : 1,660 gallons/per hour = 39.5 barrels of crude oil/used per hour = $2,844. These figures are worked out from the basis of crude oil @ $72 a barrel*. $2,844 every hour the engine runs or 27.6 Gallons which is $46.00 every minute or 76 cents a second ! That is of course if the ships buy oil at trade price...if not then these figures are the absolute minimum.( * at time of publishing )

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In the image below a worker at the plant is finalising work on the cylinder block. This image shows the piston sleeves. The worker could quite easily have a nap inside one of the bores and no one would notice !




Below are the pistons that will soon be fitted into the engine. Unlike normal car sized pistons these 3 foot diameter pistons incorporate lots of holes and it is through these holes that oil is injected through valves to keep all the working parts at a maximum low wear tolerance. Despite the colossal amounts of power output produced by these engines, surprisingly low wear rates have actually been recorded. Cylinder liner wear for example is only about 0.03 mm down for every 1000 hours of engine use.It must be remembered here that these engines work at about 20 times slower than a normal 2.0 Litre car engine and this is a major contributor to the life of the engine.



The image below depicts the 300 ton crankshaft of the 10 cylinder engine. You may notice here that there are steps on the wall of the casing to climb down into the engines sump !



In the image below the pistons shell bearings are being fitted into the engine block. They are lowered into place by a crane and guided in by two workers and a supervisor. They keep all surfaces of the engine clean at this stage as any grit or dirt could later add wear to the engine or worse destroy it, so the workers are wearing special cloth overshoes so as not to leave any abrasions on the fine working surfaces. Also you may notice that sheeting is covering the rest of the engines crankcase bearing housing to keep the dust off. These engines cost many millions upon millions of dollars; in fact, more than the ship itself that they are installed into.

[breadcatcher101]

Impressive, but I can still sink it with 3 well-placed torpedoes!

[subchaser12]

That's insane, who is building those?

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by subchaser12

That's insane, who is building those?

Wartsila-Sulser is manufactured by the Aioi Works in Japan and is part of Japan's Diesel United Ltd engine manufacturers

We all miss these things from time to time, no worries.

Originally Posted by breadcatcher101

Impressive, but I can still sink it with 3 well-placed torpedoes!

I could sink it with 2 I wonder if arsonists have similar thought processes

[jumpy]

hehe, do you think it would fit in my landrover for some serious off-road torque?

[mcf1]

Yeah that's impressive.
I saw a documentary once about the construction of a double-hull tanker and how they managed to place that huge engine into the ship.
The constructors said, that there is no transmission, the propeller shaft is connected strait to the engine. Is this normal for large ships nowadays?

P.S: I like this image:
Titanic's propeller shaft

[seafarer]

Originally Posted by subchaser12

That's insane, who is building those?

MAN Diesel Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea builds similar engines. The MAN B&W 14K98ME-C7 - 14-cylinder engines, 12.5 metres high, 4.37 metres wide, 29 metres long and weigh close to 2,000 tonnes, putting out 84,280 kilowatts or 115,000 BHP (linky

[Sailor Steve]

2000 tons! That's almost as much as my whole destroyer displaced, and about the same as the turret on an Iowa class battleship!

Pretty impressive!

[Task Force]

Yea, those engines are huge. (ill find a vedio on youtube)

Come on fellas, 2-3 torps. 1 torp and a keel shot under this things middle. (plus some time) This baby would catch on fire in no time. (create a great fireworks show more than likely).(and might even rip it in half)

[Frame57]

:rotfl:

Originally Posted by breadcatcher101

Impressive, but I can still sink it with 3 well-placed torpedoes!

Or one good ADCAP might just do it...

[Hylander_1314]

I would think that a ratio gearbox with a smaller more economical engine, and say something like an average of 4 to 1 or 6 to 1 ratio of prop revs for engine rpms would be more practical. Getting the pitch on the flutes to a good angle to maximize thrust would be interesting too.