Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

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Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ymssp

Diesel engine torsional vibration control coupling with speed

control system
Yibin Guo a, Wanyou Li a,, Shuwen Yu b, Xiao Han c, Yunbo Yuan a, Zhipeng Wang a, Xiuzhen Ma a
a
College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
b
Marine Design & Research Institute of China (MARIC), Shanghai, China
c
Shanghai Marine Diesel Engine Research Institute (SMDERI), Shanghai, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The coupling problems between shafting torsional vibration and speed control system of
Received 17 September 2016 diesel engine are very common. Neglecting the coupling problems sometimes lead to seri-
Received in revised form 26 November 2016 ous oscillation and vibration during the operation of engines. For example, during the
Accepted 11 January 2017
propulsion shafting operation of a diesel engine, the oscillation of engine speed and the
severe vibration of gear box occur which cause the engine is unable to operate. To find
the cause of the malfunctions, a simulation model coupling the speed control system with
Keywords:
the torsional vibration of deformable shafting is proposed and investigated. In the coupling
Coupling model
Shafting torsional vibration
model, the shafting is simplified to be a deformable one which consists of several inertias
Speed control and shaft sections and with characteristics of torsional vibration. The results of instanta-
Speed oscillation neous rotation speed from this proposed model agree with the test results very well and
are successful in reflecting the real oscillation state of the engine operation.
Furthermore, using the proposed model, the speed control parameters can be tuned up
to predict the diesel engine a stable and safe running. The results from the tests on the die-
sel engine with a set of tuned control parameters are consistent with the simulation results
very well.
2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Diesel engines are commonly used in the field of the ship, and the reliability of the diesel engine is relative to the safety of
maritime. There is a typical coupling problem which affects the operation of the diesel engine. During the operation of a die-
sel engine with 9 cylinders and power of 4500-kW, the oscillation of engine speed and the severe vibration of gear box occur.
From the start of 400 r/min, the speed of the engine is increasing gradually. When it approaches to about 450 r/min, the gov-
ernor arm starts vibrating and the fluctuation of the speed starts increasing. When it approaches to about 540 r/min, the
range of fluctuation reaches 20 r/min and the oscillation of engine speed occurs which leads the engine unable to operate
normally. This phenomenon is caused by the coupling of the dynamics of the driven shafting and the control system of
the diesel engine.
The coupling issues have gained wide attention especially in the research fields of industries where the reliability is
highly required such as in electric power industry or in helicopter industry. The self-oscillations occurring during the process
of turbo unit connected into electronic network have been successfully explained not only theoretically but also experimen-

Corresponding author at: College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China.
E-mail address: hrbeu_ripet_lwy@163.com (W. Li).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2017.01.017
0888-3270/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

tally. Along with that, many mathematical coupling models were developed to solve the issue of self-oscillations, such as, the
electro-mechanical coupling model, the analysis model coupling shafting torsional vibration to electronic network and the
torsional vibration simulation model coupling gas steam combined cycle unit with electronic network, etc. [1,2]. Gao [3] pre-
sented a theoretical study and proposed an active vibration control scheme for controlling torsional vibration of a rotor shaft
in large steam turbine generator sets, and the results show that full state feedback control has significant effectiveness on
attenuation of torsional vibration energy and response of turbo-generator shaft system. Hall [4,5] established wind turbine
model including the gear and shaft model to study how the wind capture capability of a fixed-speed wind turbine can be
improved through the implementation of a variable ratio gearbox (VRG). White [6] investigated the reduction of rotor shaft
torsional vibrations through active control of the generator torque, where the drive train consists of the rotor with its mass
and inertia, and the rotor shaft with its stiffness and damping. In the helicopter research field, many simulation models were
developed to deal with the coupling issues between transmission chain and speed control system in order to solve torsional
vibration problems. Among the models, there are the model coupling torsional vibration of transmission chain system to
speed control system and the coupling model among human, helicopter and speed control system in which the human effect
is taken into coupling account [79]. Pavel [10] gave an overview on the state-of-the-art in rotorcraft pilot coupling (RPC)
problem, underlining the future challenges in this field. Zhang [11] established a helicopter/turbo-shaft engines system
which has complex coupling relationships, including four parts: open-loop model of helicopter, flight controller, open-
loop model of turbo-shaft engine and engine controller. Sun [12] focused on the aeroelasticity analysis of rotor blade and
rotor control systems, and the results show the inertia of the swashplate has significant effects on high-frequency harmonics
of the servo loads.
However, in the field of reciprocating machinery such as diesel engine, the problems of coupling oscillation in diesel
engine are very common but there are a few researches focusing on the coupling issues. Usually, speed control part and tor-
sional vibration part are studied separately. The classification society rules only make requirements for the two parts indi-
vidually and have no requirements for the coupling issues at all [13]. While studying the simulation of speed control system,
usually the shafting is treated as a rigid one with single inertia, neglecting that the shafting is deformable [1416]. Tao [17]
proposed an adaptive neutral network control for elastic marine shafting using dynamic surface control in order to reduce
the shafting torsional vibration due to fluid incentives of propeller, and the limitation in that study is without considering the
coupling between the torsional vibration of whole shafting system and the control system. stman [18] presented a method
for reducing the torsional vibration of the crankshaft by balancing the cylinder-wise torque contributions with the measured
angular speeds of the crankshaft system, which leads to a significant reduction of the thermal load of the flexible coupling.
Tang [19] established a novel simplified torsional vibration model to study the torsional vibration characteristics of a com-
pound planetary hybrid propulsion system, and the simplified model can be used to accurately describe the low-frequency
vibration property. This study provides a basis for the coupling simulation of vibration-control system to ensure the real-
time performance of the coupling model. By and large, among the published literatures, one can hardly find the coupling
models on shaft system vibration with control system.
In this paper, aiming at the oscillation of the propulsion system, firstly, the torsional vibration is calculated and the speed
control is simulated based on the traditional simulation method with a rigid shaft. The two parts (the torsional vibration and
the speed control) are analyzed separately to check if the results satisfy the classification society rules. Then, a coupling sim-
ulation model by combining deformable shaft torsional vibration with speed control system is proposed which has never
been studied before. The coupling model was built by substituting the deformable shafting model for the rigid one into
the speed control simulation model. The coupling model can be used to explain the cause of the malfunction as fault prob-
lems. Such problems are sometimes not simply design problems of parts but rather than coupling problems among all parts
in a system such as shafting, controller, etc.

2. Shafting torsional vibration

2.1. Free torsional vibration

The shafting of a diesel engine studied in this paper consists of crankshaft, gearbox gear shaft, propeller shaft and gen-
erator shaft as shown in Fig. 1, where the power of the propeller is 2800 kW, and the power of the generator is 500 kW.

Flywheel

Diesel Gear box

Generator Propeller

Flange Elastic
coupling

Fig. 1. Shafting system.

 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113 3

According to the principle of keeping the vibration characteristics unchanged, a lumped parameter model is created by sim-
plifying the shafting as a model with 35 inertias and 34 elastic shaft segments as shown in Fig. 2, and the input parameters of
the lumped model are showed in Table 1. The torsional vibration characteristics of the simplified model will be equivalent to
the real shafting system. Later on, a test on the real engine shows that the simplification is acceptable.

Propeller
Flywheel 26 27
shaft

25
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Vibration 35
damper Cylinders

19 20 21 22 23 24
Generator
shaft

Fig. 2. Equivalent shafting system.

Table 1
Input parameters for calculation of torsional vibration.

No. Moment of Torsional stiffness No. Moment of Torsional stiffness

inertia (kg
m2) (MN
m/rad) inertia (kg
m2) (MN
m/rad)
Inertia J1 168.0 Inertia J19 16.00
Stiffness K1 5.500 Stiffness K19 9.880
Inertia J2 38.60 Inertia J20 2.280
Stiffness K2 108.0 Stiffness K20 10,000
Inertia J3 47.30 Inertia J21 21.60
Stiffness K3 84.00 Stiffness K21 1.024
Inertia J4 47.30 Inertia J22 7.200
Stiffness K4 84.00 Stiffness K22 1.024
Inertia J5 47.30 Inertia J23 13.60
Stiffness K5 84.00 Stiffness K23 23.08
Inertia J6 47.30 Inertia J24 274.7
Stiffness K6 84.00 Stiffness K24 5.500
Inertia J7 47.30 Inertia J25 95.57
Stiffness K7 84.00 Stiffness K25 10,000
Inertia J8 47.30 Inertia J26 17.40
Stiffness K8 84.00 Stiffness K26 17.79
Inertia J9 47.30 Inertia J27 0.7513
Stiffness K9 84.00 Stiffness K27 33.65
Inertia J10 47.30 Inertia J28 4.830
Stiffness K10 84.00 Stiffness K28 10,000
Inertia J11 47.30 Inertia J29 43.10
Stiffness K11 116.0 Stiffness K29 11.39
Inertia J12 13.80 Inertia J30 1.382
Stiffness K12 101.0 Stiffness K30 10,000
Inertia J13 617.3 Inertia J31 5.233
Stiffness K13 10,000 Stiffness K31 1.011
Inertia J14 21.00 Inertia J32 7.321
Stiffness K14 0.576 Stiffness K32 0.9379
Inertia J15 30.00 Inertia J33 7.975
Stiffness K15 0.576 Stiffness K33 0.9588
Inertia J16 66.50 Inertia J34 13.50
Stiffness K16 10,000 Stiffness K34 0.9326
Inertia J17 10.50 Inertia J35 214.2
Stiffness K17 10,000
Inertia J18 50.65
Stiffness K18 10,000
4 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

In the equivalent shafting system shown in Fig. 2, the inertias from NO. 1 to NO. 13 represent the diesel engine crankshaft
and the inertias from NO. 3 to NO. 11 represent the nine cylinders of the diesel engine. The propeller shaft is simplified into
the inertias and the shaft sections from NO. 28 to NO. 35 and the 35th-inertia represents the propeller. The generator shaft is
simplified into the inertias and shaft sections from NO. 19 to NO. 24 and the 24th-inertia represents the rotor of generator.
The branch inertias from NO. 25 to NO. 27 present the parts of flange and shafts transferring other load.
The differential equation of free torsional vibration of the shafting system is given as follows:

Jfhg Kfhg 0 1

where [J] is the inertia matrix, [K] is the torsional stiffness matrix, fhg is the dynamic angular displacement vector of tor-
sional vibration. Assuming that the solution of Eq. (1) is given as:

fhg fAg cos xt 2

Then, substitute Eq. (2) into Eq. (1), and it gives

KfAg kJfAg 3

where fAg is the static angular displacement vector of torsional vibration and k is the eigenvalue of the system matrix.
The eigenvalues can be obtained from solving above determinant equation using MATLAB. Then, the natural frequency is
given as follows:
p
x k 4
The natural frequencies of the first five orders of torsional vibration of the shafting system are given in Table 2.
The analysis results indicate that all the critical speeds of torsional vibration are outside the nearby region of the oper-
ating speed of 540 r/min. It indicates that if there are no external excitations which will cause resonance, the engine should
run stably.

2.2. Forced torsional vibration

The forced torsional vibration differential equation of the shafting system is shown as follows:

Jfhg Cfhg
_ Kfhg fTg 5

where J is the matrix of moment of inertia, C is the damping matrix, K is the stiffness matrix, and fTg is the exciting tor-
que vector, its components are the torques of 9-cylinder pressure and the load torques caused by propeller and generator.
fhg is the angular displacement vector of torsional vibration.
To calculate the stresses, a MATLAB program is carried out based on the calculation flowchart as shown in Fig. 3.
According to the above calculation process, the maximum stress of nine crankshaft sections is obtained as shown in
Table 3.
The levels of maximum crankshaft stress shown in Table 3 are below the allowable value of 30 MPa which can be
obtained from the diesel engine manufacturer, and the evaluation method meets the requirement in the rules of China Clas-
sification Society [13]. It indicates that the engine should run safely and smoothly.

3. Control system simulation model with rigid shafting

3.1. Modules of control simulation model

Traditionally, in a speed control simulation model, the shafting is represented by one single inertia regardless the flexible
real structure. The simulation model consists of two main parts, the speed-controller module and the shaft module with the
rigid shaft, as shown in Fig. 4.
The electronic speed control system consists of a PID controller and an actuator. The output current decided by PID
parameters is delivered into the actuator which can regulate the rack displacement, hence, to change the fuel injection quan-
tity. The shaft bearing active torques caused by cylinder pressure and the passive torques are caused by propeller and gen-
erator, and transmits power.

Table 2
Natural frequencies of torsional vibration.

Order 1 2 3 4 5
Natural frequencies (Hz) 3.413 5.533 10.160 24.329 31.141
 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113 5

Fig. 3. Programming flowchart of forced torsional vibration in frequency domain.

Table 3
Maximum stress of crankshaft.

No. of crankshaft sections Max. stress (MPa)

1 12.74
2 18.02
3 15.30
4 17.74
5 22.39
6 18.44
7 21.50
8 19.03
9 14.50

The control system simulation model is formed to be a closed loop by getting the shaft instantaneous speed signal as a
feedback of the speed control module and the shaft module. The software Simulink is used to run the simulation model, and
make the torque as the input. The output is the instantaneous speed of engine.

3.2. Results of the control system simulation model

With the target engine speed set to be 540 r/min and the controller parameter set to be the same as the parameters in the
actual fault condition, namely, P = 0.8, I = 0.6 and D = 0.4, the simulation results in Fig. 5 show that the fluctuation of the
instantaneous speed is small enough (about 3 r/min), which indicates the operation of the shaft is stable and secure.
6 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

PID Instantaneous
Target speed Actuator Rigid shaft
controller speed

Fig. 4. Speed control simulation model with rigid shaft.

700 544

543
600
542
500

Speed (r/min)
Speed (r/min)

541

400 540

539
300
538
200
537

100 536
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Simulation result of the shafting instantaneous speed: (a) the whole result of the instantaneous speed; (b) the partial result to show the fluctuation
range of the instantaneous speed.

4. Coupling simulation model of speed control system with shaft torsional vibration

4.1. Coupling simulation model

Thinking through the conventional coupling simulation model, a flexible shaft torsional vibration module is proposed to
substitute for the rigid shaft vibration module in the control system simulation model. The new coupling simulation model
consists of the shaft torsional vibration module and the speed control system module. The simulation structure of the cou-
pling model is shown in Fig. 6.
In order to run the proposed coupling simulation model in an efficient way, the flexible shaft is simplified as a model with
15 inertias and 14 elastic shaft sections shown in Fig. 7. The results in Table 4 show that comparing with the previous model
with 35 inertias and 34 elastic shaft sections, the two equivalent shaft model have almost the same natural frequencies for
the first two orders so that the new simplified shaft model can be used to substitute for the original one.
Thus, the differential torsional vibration equation of the new shaft module is given as follows:

PID Torsion vibration of Instantaneous

Target speed Actuator
controller flexible shaft speed

Fig. 6. Structure of the coupling model.

 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113 7

14

13

11 14
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
13

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
15
Cylinder Propeller

12
Generator
Fig. 7. Simplified lumped parameter model.

Table 4
Natural frequencies of the two lumped parameter model.

Model First order (r/min) Second order (r/min)

15 inertias and 14 elastic shaft sections 208.7 330.9
35 inertias and 34 elastic shaft sections 204.8 332.0
Difference (%) 1.904 0.331

8
>
> J h c1 h_ 1 h1;2 h_ 1  h_ 2 k1;2 h1  h2 0
> 1 1
>
>
> _ _ _ _ _
> J 2 h2 h1;2 h2  h1 h2;3 h2  h3 c2 h2 k1;2 h2  h1 k2;3 h2  h3 T cyl1
>
>
>
> _ _ _ _ _
> J 3 h3 h2;3 h3  h2 h3;4 h3  h4 c3 h3 k2;3 h3  h2 k3;4 h3  h4 T cyl2
>
>
>
>
> J 4 h4 h3;4 h4  h3 h4;5 h4  h5 c4 h_ 4 k3;4 h4  h3 k4;5 h4  h5 T cyl3
>
>
_ _ _ _
>
>
>
> J 5 h5 h4;5 h_ 5  h_ 4 h5;6 h_ 5  h_ 6 c5 h_ 5 k4;5 h5  h4 k5;6 h5  h6 T cyl4
>
>
>
>
>
>
> J 6 h6 h5;6 h_ 6  h_ 5 h6;7 h_ 6  h_ 7 c6 h_ 6 k5;6 h6  h5 k6;7 h6  h7 T cyl5
>
>
>
> J h7 h6;7 h_ 7  h_ 6 h7;8 h_ 7  h_ 8 c7 h_ 7 k6;7 h7  h6 k7;8 h7  h8 T cyl6
>
>
> 7
>
>
> _ _ _ _ _
< J 8 h8 h7;8 h8  h7 h8;9 h8  h9 c8 h8 k7;8 h8  h7 k8;9 h8  h9 T cyl7
> J 9 h9 h8;9 h9  h8 h9;10 h9  h10 c9 h_ 9 k8;9 h9  h8 k9;10 h9  h10 T cyl8
_ _ _ _ 6
>
>
> J h h h_  h_ h
> _ _ _
> 10 10 10;11 h10  h11 c 10 h10 k9;10 h10  h9 k10;11 h10  h11 T cyl9
>
>
9;10 10 9
>
>
>
> J 11 h11 h10;11 h11  h10 h11;12 h11  h13 h12;13 h_ 11  h_ 12 c11 h_ 11 k10;11 h11  h10 k11;12 h11  h13
_ _ _ _
>
>
>
> k12;13 h11  h12 0
>
>
>
>
>
>
> J h12 h12;13 h_ 12  h_ 11 c12 h_ 12 k12;13 h12  h11 T generator
> 12
>
>
> J 13 h13 h11;12 h_ 13  h_ 11 h13;14 h_ 13  h_ 14 h14;15 h_ 13  h_ 15 c13 h_ 13 k11;12 h13  h11 k13;14 h13  h14
>
>
>
>
>
> k14;15 h13  h15 0
>
>
>
> _ _ _
>
> J 14 h14 h13;14 h14  h13 c 14 h14 k13;14 h14  h13 0
>
:
J 15 h15 h14;15 h15  h13 c15 h_ 15 k14;15 h15  h13 T propeller
_ _

where T cyl j (j = 1, 2, 3, . . . , 9) is the jth cylinder excitation torque, T generator ; T propeller are the excitation torques of generator and
propeller, respectively.
In order to run the simulation, the variables of angular displacement amplitude will be replaced by the variables of shaft
speed according to the following equations:
Z
p
hi nsi dt 7
30
8 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

p
h_ i nsi 8
30

hi p dnsi
9
30 dt
Hence, the differential equation with the variable of shaft speed can be described by Simulink software to build the flex-
ible shaft module. The input signals are the excitation torques including torques of the cylinders (the sum of the tangential
torque of each cylinder and torque of reciprocating mass), the load torques of propeller and generator. The shaft parameters
of inertia, stiffness and damping are constant. Furthermore, the output signals are the responses of shaft torsional vibration,
namely, the instantaneous speeds of inertias.
The premise of the coupling simulation process is that torsional vibration and rotational speed control form a closed-loop
control system. That is, the signals which are collected by the sensors and passed to the speed controller are actually the
derivatives of the angle responses of the elastic shafting torsional vibration. After receiving the rotational speed signal,
the speed controllers regulation performance is reflected as an excitation torque applied upon the shafting. In turn, the tor-
que affects the response of the shafting torsional vibration. The closed-loop of coupling process is shown in Fig. 8.

4.2. Results of coupling simulation model

With the target engine speed set to be 540 r/min and the controller parameters set to be the same as the parameters actu-
ally used in the fault condition, namely, P = 0.8, I = 0.6, D = 0.4, The simulation results are given in Fig. 9. The results show
that the instantaneous speed roughly fluctuates within a range of plus or minus 21 r/min. It indicates that this group of
PID parameters couldnt match the shaft torsional vibration, hence, it might cause malfunction including shaft oscillation,
severe vibration of gear box, and so on.
To sum up, under the control of the same group of controller parameters, the simulation results of shaft instantaneous
speed in the two kinds of simulation model reflect different characteristics. The former model with rigid shaft vibration mod-
ule shows that the fluctuation of speed is so small that the engine should run stably. On the contract, the latter model with

Fig. 8. Closed-loop control process of the coupling model.

1000 565
560
500 555
550
Speed (r/min)

Speed (r/min)

0 545

540
-500 535
530
-1000 525
520

-1500 515
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 9. Simulation result of the shaft instantaneous speed: (a) the whole result of the instantaneous speed; (b) the partial result to show the fluctuation
range of the instantaneous speed.
 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113 9

deformable shaft vibration module shows the large fluctuation of the speed will make the engine oscillate severely. The
speed control system based on the conventional method simplifying the shaft to be a rigid one is unreasonable and cannot
reflect the actual problems. Later on, an experimental test is carried out to verify these two models.

5. Comparing the test results with the analysis results

5.1. Testing system and method of the shafting torsional vibration

To verify two models above discussed, tests on the shafting torsional vibration are carried out on the real ship. The sche-
matic diagram of testing system is given in Fig. 10. Pointing at the tooth of flywheel ring gear, the speed sensor collects the
pulse signals due to the distance change between the sensor and the tooth surface. The pulse signals then are transformed
through data lines into the multichannel data acquisition. After that, the responses of torsional vibration and the shafting
speed signals can be obtained using LMS.TEST.LAB.
The test includes two parts, the free torsional vibration part and the shafting instantaneous speed part. The free torsional
vibration signals are collected from two processes, one is increasing the engine speed continuously from 450 r/min up to
600 r/min and the other is decreasing the engine speed continuously from 600 r/min down to 450 r/min. The shafting instan-
taneous speed signals are collected during the engine is running at the speed of 540 r/min as stable as possible.

5.2. Testing results

5.2.1. Free torsional vibration test

For the two test processes, the natural frequencies can be analyzed. The comparison of natural frequencies between the
test and the calculation is shown in Table 5. The test frequencies of the first order and the third order have little difference
from the calculation values, while the second order shows bigger difference. It may be due to while simplifying the shafting
into inertias and elastic shaft sections, the nonlinear structures, such as gear mesh, couplings and clutch, etc., are treated as
linear one or even a rigid one. By and large, from the point view of the free torsional vibration, the test results and the sim-
ulation results are in good agreement.

5.2.2. Instantaneous speed test

With the engine speed keeping at about 540 r/min and the control parameters of P = 0.8, I = 0.6 and D = 0.4, the testing
result of engine instantaneous speed is given in Fig. 11. The results show that the instantaneous speed roughly fluctuates
within a range of plus or minus 20 r/min as shown in Fig. 9. It agrees with the results of the coupling simulation model very
well. It also indicates that the drive system runs unsteadily.

6. Tuning PID parameters to stable engine running

As the use of the PID algorithm does not guarantee optimal control of the system or even its stability, the PID parameters
used in the studied engine do not match with the response of the shaft torsional vibration, hence, under this set of PID, either
the test or the proposed control simulation model shows the large fluctuation and oscillation of the rotation speed, that is a

Flywheel
Data analysis
Multichannel software
data acquisition
Speed
sensor

Fig. 10. Schematic diagram of testing system.

Table 5
Comparison of natural frequencies between test and calculation.

No. Testing values (Hz) Calculation values (Hz) Difference (%)

1 3.44 3.41 0.9
2 6.69 5.53 17.5
3 10.13 10.16 0.2
10 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

580

575

570

565

Speed (r/min) 560

555

550

545

540

535

530
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time (s)

Fig. 11. The testing result of the instantaneous speed with the engine speed 540 r/min.

unstable engine running. Later, a simulation study will show that using the proposed control simulation model, the three PID
parameters can be tuned up to ensure the engine stable running. Further, a test carried out shows that a stable and safe
engine running is really achieved under a new set of tuned PID parameters.

6.1. Tuning PID parameters based on the simulation coupling model

It is not too hard that after running the proposed coupling simulation model several times, a new set of control param-
eters of P = 0.28, I = 0.18 and D = 0.4 is tuned up. Choosing the new control PID, the instantaneous speed fluctuates within a
small range of about plus or minus 3 r/min. The results under the target engine speed 540 r/min are given in Fig. 12. The
results under the target engine speed of 750 r/min are given in Fig. 13. All the results show that using this proposed simu-
lation model and choosing the new tuned PID control parameters, the engine can run stably and safely either at the working
speed of 540 r/min or at the rated speed of 750 r/min.

700 544

600 543

500 542

400 541
Speed (r/min)
Speed (r/min)

300 540

200 539

100 538

0 537

-100 536

-200 535
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 12. Instantaneous speed under tuned PID at engine speed 540 r/min: (a) the whole result of the instantaneous speed; (b) the partial result to show the
fluctuation range of the instantaneous speed.
 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113 11

900 755

754
800
753
700 752

Speed (r/min)
Speed (r/min)

751
600
750
500
749

400 748

747
300
746

200 745
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Instantaneous speed under tuned PID with rated engine speed 750 r/min: (a) the whole result of the instantaneous speed; (b) the partial result to
show the fluctuation range of the instantaneous speed.

6.2. Testing instantaneous speed under tuned parameters

The new tuned PID controller parameters are chosen to be used in the new tests of the engine. The test results at the
working speed of 540 r/min and at the rated speed of 750 r/min are shown in Fig. 14 and 15, respectively. The speeds fluc-
tuate within a small range of about plus or minus 2 r/min and 4 r/min. The results are consistent with the simulation result.
They indicate the stable operation of the engine. Hence, using the proposed coupling simulation model, the speed control
parameters can be tuned up and predicted reasonably to ensure the diesel engine stable and safe running.
From the simulated and tested results, it is found that the speed fluctuation of the diesel engine under oscillatory condi-
tion is larger than that under stable condition. Because the input signal of the control system of the diesel engine is from the
instantaneous speed of crankshaft and the torsional angle of the shafting can be transformed into instantaneous speed by
differentiation, the torsional vibration of the shafting and the control system compose a closed-loop coupling system. When
the parameters of control system are not suitable, the coupling oscillation will appear in this closed-loop system. In this
study, the coupling oscillation affected the stability of the system, so the fuel injection quantity was adjusted frequently,
which leads to the torque fluctuation increasing obviously. Hence, the speed is not stable under oscillatory condition driven
by the increased torque fluctuation.

559

558.5

558

557.5
Speed (r/min)

557

556.5

556

555.5

555

554.5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time (s)

Fig. 14. Test instantaneous speed at the engine speed of 540 r/min.
12 Y. Guo et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 94 (2017) 113

769

768

767

766

Speed (r/min)
765

764

763

762

761

760
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time (s)

Fig. 15. Test instantaneous speed at the engine speed of 750 r/min.

7. Conclusion

In this paper, to solve the oscillation of the engine speed and severe vibration of the engine of a diesel engine with 9 cylin-
ders and power of 4500-kilowatt, firstly, the shafting torsional vibration and the speed control based on the traditional sim-
ulation model with shafting simplified to be rigid are analyzed separately. The results show that the propulsion system
meets the design standard and should run safely and stably.
Hence, a coupling simulation model is proposed and investigated. The results from the proposed model agree with the
test results very well. It indicates that the fault problems are the coupling problems among the parts in the system of shaft-
ing and controller. The PID parameters used in the engine investigated in this paper are not appropriated to the shaft tor-
sional vibration. They need to be tuned to deal with the engine safe and stable running issue of the engine. Using the
proposed control simulation model, a new set of control parameters is obtained. All the results show that with this new
tuned PID control parameters, the engine can run stably and safely both at the working speed and the rated speed.
The proposed coupling model can be easily used to predict the speed control parameters for the stable and safe running of
the diesel engine. It can help not only to avoid the coupling oscillation phenomenon due to mismatch between parts but also
to reduce the cost to maintain each part as oscillation malfunction in the practical engineering as well.

Acknowledgement

The research work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51375104), Heilongjiang
Province Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists (Grant No. JC 201405), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No.
2015M581433) and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. LBH-Z15038).

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