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Fuel Oil
Fuel Oil Testing
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INTRODUCTION
For efficient and complete combustion, residual fuel must be heated before it is burnt. For correct atomisation in the
cylinder, the fuel must be at the correct viscosity. If the viscosity is too high, the fuel droplets will tend to be too large and
will take too long to absorb the heat energy from the compressed air before they start to burn. This will lead to late and
incomplete combustion, lack of power, afterburning and damage or fouling to liner, piston crown, exhaust valve and
turbocharger. If the viscosity is too low, then the droplets will be too small and combustion will tend to be early and
incomplete because the fuel droplets will not have penetrated far enough into the cylinder to find sufficient oxygen to
burn completely. This again will cause damage and fouling.
Because residual fuel is a complex blend of heavy asphaltenes blended with lighter distillates, and will vary in its make
up, to ensure that the fuel is maintained at the correct viscosity for injection, an inline device is used to measure the
viscosity and maintain it at the correct setpoint by controlling the fuel heating source.
Marine Engineers often refer to this device as a viscotherm, although this is a trade name for a particular make of
viscosity controller.
9. gear pump
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Actual viscotherm installation Exam type drawing explaining how a viscotherm works
The drawing above shows a pneumatic control system for controlling fuel oil viscosity. Modern systems convert the
differential pressure to an low voltage electrical signal between 4 - 20 mA DC and use this to control the position of the
heater valve.
Systems are manufactured by VAF (Viscosense), Alpha Laval (Viscochief) and Solartron Mobrey (Viscomaster).
Basically the systems all use the principle that the damping of a vibration signal is proportional to the square root of the
viscosity. Not affected by vibrations or pressure and flow fluctuations. No moving parts to wear out.
THE VISCOSENSE
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The sensor comprises of a stainless steel pendulum attached to a base plate via
a torsion tube. two piezo elements are driven by an alternating signal causing
the pendulum to vibrate. A second set of elements sense the torsional vibration
via a feedback, and a processor measures the phase difference between the
transmitted and received signals. This phase difference is processed which
results in a value proportional to the square root of the fuel oil's viscosity.
The Viscochief
Fuel oil viscosity is measured by the damping effect of the oil on an oscillating rod.
Working Principle
The Viscomaster
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