Marine diesel engine turbocharger test system

Introduction

This customer is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of large diesel engines, turbochargers and complete drive systems. The company manufactures diesel engines for ships, power generation, heavy road and rail vehicles - with power ranging from 116 to 9000kW. Turbocharger performance determines overall engine performance, fuel consumption and emissions. They are subjected to high levels of thermal and mechanical stress. They can rotate up to 90,000 rpm, are exposed to temperatures of up to 750 ºC and a pressure ratio of 5.0.

Customer requirement

Two existing turbocharger test benches where upgraded to test the most critical areas and to optimize the robustness, efficiency and operation of the components. For this test bench about 80 analogue signals and about 20 digital I/O channels had to be monitored. A high level of accuracy was especially necessary for the temperature measurements (+/- 0.2 °K).

The customer was also considering more complex test scenarios with more inputs in the future and therefore wanted a modular system with the ability to upgrade the system easily in future and add more I/O channels.

Solution

The latest TopMessage data logging system and ProfiSignal software from Delphin Technology were chosen as the ideal solution. Analogue inputs record pressure, flow rates, valve position, and temperature. The counter inputs measure turbo rotation speed. The ProfiBus-DP Slave interface of the TopMessage enabled connection to the PLC system that controls the overall test cycle.

The system was installed in a control cabinet with the following modules:

Hardware

1x TopMessage Master with 1 GB memory and ProfiBus DP Slave interface

3x TopMessage Slave extension units

6x ADVT modules provide 90 analogue inputs for temperature & pressure measurement

1x DIOT module for digital I/Os, pulse & speed measurement