2016 American Bureau of Shipping. All rights reserved.

Shaft Alignment Challenges

The Single Sterntube Bearing Design

Dr Chris Leontopoulos
Manager, Corporate Marine Technology
Athens, Greece
18th February 2016

The Auditorium of Maran and Alpha Tankers

Shaft Alignment Sensitivity Analysis

Shaft Alignment Sensitivity Analysis

This preliminary study aims to show the sensitivity of the design with a
single sterntube bearing.

Two computer shaft alignment models are used for this study:


One with 2 sterntube bearings (traditional).

One with 1 sterntube bearing.

Two variables are considered:




Both have similar shaft diameters and horsepower for comparison purposes
but of course, they are similar not identical systems.

The eccentric propeller thrust position.

The movement of the intermediate bearing and engine at offsets above or
below the prescribed ones in the calculations. (This is to simulate the
accidental inaccuracies during the sighting process and unaccounted
residual hull deflections).

In both cases the objective function is the misalignment angle between

the shaft and the aft sterntube bearing bush.
3

Propeller Eccentric Thrust

How does the position of eccentric thrust influences the aft

sterntube bearing misalignment angle ?



Class Rules have an empirical limit of 0.3 mrad.

Assumption: A misalignment angle of above 0.3 mrad may cause
damage to the aft sterntube bearing.

Dynamic
Moment

PROP
Vertical
Force

L/2

Static slope mismatch

tend to zero in ideal
condition

Single Sterntube Bearing Failures

Single Sterntube Bearing Failures

Near-Optimum Shaft Alignment

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Propeller Eccentric Thrust

Propeller Eccentric Thrust

Propeller Forces and Corresponding Loading

Conditions Influencing the Shaftline

Shaft Orbit in IB during Special Sea Trials for Shaft

Alignment

10

Intermediate Bearing and Engine Positioning

How does the position of the intermediate bearing and engine

offset affect the misalignment angle?

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Intermediate Bearing and Engine Positioning

How does the position of the intermediate bearing and engine

offset affect the misalignment angle ?

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Traditional 2-STB Bearing Design versus Single

STB Bearing Design

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Traditional 2-STB Bearing Design versus Single

STB Bearing Design

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Traditional 2-STB Bearing Design versus Single

STB Bearing Design

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Propeller Thrust Eccentricity versus

Misalignment Angle

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Propeller Thrust Eccentricity versus

Misalignment Angle

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IB and Engine Offset versus Misalignment

Angle

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IB and Engine Offset versus Misalignment

Angle

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Conclusions

Through simplified computer shaft alignment models it has been

shown that :


The position of the propeller eccentric thrust influences the

misalignment angle much more when there is a single sterntube
bearing.
An accidental or inaccurate position of the intermediate bearing engine has far more influence on the misalignment angle in the case
of a single sterntube bearing.
Reaching negative misalignment angles is more readily possible with
single sterntube bearing designs. This is because the forward
sterntube bearing corrects the slope by taking the additional load.

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Recommendations

It is recommended that a final optical sighting takes place with the

engine and the superstructure already in place.

In case of a propulsion installation with no forward stern tube

bearing, the intermediate shaft bearing should be chocked and its
offset not changed after the bore sighting is complete, (ABS SVR
Rules 2015).

It is recommended that very light draft operations are reconsidered in terms of power and RPM due to the sensitivity of
the design on the downward bending moment from the propeller
eccentric thrust.

Due to the sensitivity of the design, further investigations can be

conducted through systematic measurements on such
powertrains.
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ABS Experience of Contributing Factors to

Related Failures

Possible intermediate bearing and engine bearing offsets out of

spec.

Potential residual lateral vibration from a calculated critical speed

close to MCR.

Potentially additional forces from partially immersed propeller due

to rough weather conditions.

Sensitivity of the design from potential unaccounted hull

deflections.

Lubrication system with potentially insufficient cooling.

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Afloat Re-Alignment

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Shaft Alignment Measurements using Strain Gauges and the

concept of Reverse Engineering.

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Reverse Engineering

Definition of Shaft Alignment :



Shaft Alignment is the configuration of the shafts and bearings

relative to the centerlines of the bearings from the theoretical straight
line condition, so as to achieve an acceptable bearing load
distribution.

Definition of Reverse Engineering Shaft Alignment :



Reverse Engineering Shaft Alignment is about performing a reverse

engineering calculation with the desired bearing load distribution as
input or the measured shaft bending moment values at selected
positions and determining a set of bearing offsets (usually more than
one) as output, which is to produce acceptable bearing loads under
the tested loading condition.

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Reverse Engineering Background Theory

In the reverse engineering problem, the input is the desired shaft

bending moments and/or bearing reaction loads and the output is the
bearing offsets that satisfy the desired bearing loads.

The reverse problem is essentially a minimisation problem, where the

quantity to be minimised is the difference between the desired and the
calculated quantity.

A special algorithm (which is called optimisation algorithm) is used to

perform the reverse analysis through multiple iterations.

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Reverse Engineering Background Theory

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Reverse Engineering Background Theory

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Strain Gauge Installation Procedure

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Strain Gauge Measurements

TELEMETRIC Strain Gauge Installation Procedure

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Strain Gauge Measurements

TELEMETRIC Strain Gauge Installation Procedure

31

Strain Gauge Measurements

Static Versus Dynamic (Telemetric) Strain Gauge measurements

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Static Versus Dynamic (Telemetric) Strain Gauge measurements

33

Strain Gauge Measurements

Reverse Engineering through FE model

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Reverse Engineering through FE model

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Reverse Engineering through FE model

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Reverse Engineering through FE model

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Reverse Engineering through FE model

38

Strain Gauge Measurements

Misalignment Angle in the aft sterntube bush

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Misalignment Angle in the aft sterntube bush Dynamic Conditions

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Strain Gauge Measurements

Telemetric strain gauge method is the BEST measurement

method to demonstrate the shaft alignment status of a typical
vessel shaftline under both static and dynamic (operating)
conditions.

This is because it can provide with good accuracy the bearing

offsets and hence the bearing reactions to verify that the shaftline
bearings are not unloaded or overloaded at any time, particularly
during operation.

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Strain Gauge Measurements

However, for SINGLE STERNTUBE BEARING shaftlines, there can be a margin

of error when attempting to calculate the misalignment angle inside the aft
sterntube bearing under certain loading conditions. This is due to the fact that
hull deflections involve a part of translation and a part of rotation of the sterntube
(as part of the flexing hull), of which the rotation can only be estimated through
assumptions due to the single point of shaft support in the sterntube and the
shaft flexure between the aft sterntube and the intermediate bearing.

The above can be overcome if there is experience or actual knowledge and

accurate estimation of the hull deflections in order to minimise the error.

Other sources of error could include:




Approximate estimation of point of support in the stb aft bush.

Yielding of the stb bush white metal with a YS of around 50 MPa,
which spoils the system linearity.
Higher dependence on very sensitive influence coefficients at the
crankshaft bearing area.
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Strain Gauge Measurements

If the hull deflections are not known or available.

If the remaining misalignment angle inside the aft sterntube bush

is critical to be measured with the best possible accuracy,
THEN

It is recommended to install the light DSAM system, as either

additional or alternative measurement method.

The light DSAM system consists of a set of 2 pairs of

displacement probes installed at the aft and forward part of the
sterntube bush that monitor continuously and with high accuracy
the shaft misalignment angle under all conditions.

If the misalignment angle exceeds 0.3 mrad then the likelihood of

a bearing failure increases.
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DSAM system

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DSAM system

45

DSAM system

46

DSAM system

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Questions

48

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