Journal of Automation and Control Engineering Vol. 2, No.

1, March 2014

Thermal Management System Analysis of Marine

Diesel Engine
Kelong Zhang, Xiaofeng Wang, Xiaming Kong, Hong Zeng, and Xingsheng Lao*
Wuhan the second Ship Design Research Institute, Laboratory on steam power system, Wuhan, China,
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract—A lumped parameter model is developed to study thermal management affects and is affected by other
performance of marine diesel engine thermal management subsystem.
system. One dimensional flow equations combined with A lumped model for a 1000kW marine diesel engine
classical Webie combustion model and Woschni heat thermal management system is presented in this study.
transfer model are employed to describe diesel’s flow
Power output and heat release of diesel is calculated by
characteristic. Modeling results of heat release from diesel
engine is validated against experimental data. Cooperated widely accepted Wiebie combustion model and Woschni
with experimental data based models of water pump and heat transfer model separately. Heat release rate of heat
heat exchangers, thermal management system performance source in engine system is modeled by fitting curves
is analyzed while engine fresh cooling water outlet based on experimental data. Heat transfer in seawater
temperature is controlled to achieve a certain value by a heat exchanger is modeled by empirical lumped
PID temperature regulating valve. The results shown that parameter model. As air inlet temperature is an important
inlet seawater temperature variation has relatively little parameter which affects engine performance. Flow in
effect on opening of regulating valve, but engine power system is simulated by one dimensional mass
output variation results in notably regulating valve opening
conversation equations.
fluctuation. Modeling results would be employed in an
advanced submarine diesel engine system design. 
Performance of the ship diesel engine thermal
management system is simulated at different power
Index Terms—lumped parameter model, thermal output and seawater inlet temperature.
management system, marine diesel engine
II. SYSTEM MODEL

I. INTRODUCTION A. System Description

Diesel
As a traditional high power density engine, diesel is Lub Oil Cooler

widely used in ship propulsion system. Cooling Manifold Cylinder

performance degrades worse when fresh cooling water Turbocharged

Valve Air
flowing through cylinder jacket achieves a higher SW Pump Generator
Air Cooler
SW/FW Heat Exchanger
Turbocharged
Sprayer
temperature than normal point, which is usually Air Cooler

Generator
controlled to be lower than 80℃. In shipboard centralized To Outboard
Lub Oil Cooler

cooling system, thermal performance of each subsystem To Outboard

Fresh Water Pump
Exhaust Pipe
affects performance of other subsystems and
consequently affects performance of the whole Figure 1. Advanced submarine diesel thermal management
propulsion system. A self regulating temperature PID
controlling valve is applied in engine fresh cooling water Thermal management system of Virginia Submarine
circuit to keep a relatively stable inlet water temperature. diesel generator is as shown in Fig. 1. In this system, air
In traditional system, wax cylinder is used to create a route, freshwater route and seawater route are stated in
bypass flow threshold. As an updated substitution of wax different lines. Freshwater/seawater heat exchanger is a
cylinder, a much more accurate regulating valve with a high efficient plate model. Larger power output of diesel
PID controller integrated is now usually applied in engine results in higher freshwater temperature flowing
advanced engine thermal management system. into thermostat and heat exchanger, therefore, more hot
Many studies are conducted on cylinder cooling water is sent to heat exchanger for cooling and then joins
management, and definite conclusion is made as water together with the uncooled water.
temperature control is very important for diesel [1], these A simple system sketch is shown as Fig. 2. Water from
studies are usually conducted aiming for engine pump flows through diesel engine cylinder and splits to
performance improvement [2]-[4]. But few studies are two pass, one bypass leads through air intercooler and
conducted on the integrated system aiming for a ship then join the main pass leads from freshwater seawater
board centralized cooling system where diesel engine heat exchanger. Heat transfer in air intercooler is
important in the presenting model. A PID water
Manuscript received February 7, 2013; revised September 5, 2013. temperature controlling valve is set at entrance of engine

©2014 Engineering and Technology Publishing 75

doi: 10.12720/joace.2.1.75-78
 Journal of Automation and Control Engineering Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2014

cooling water pipe to change fresh water flow rate into dQB dX
heat exchanger for cooling. If engine cooling water outlet  gfH uu (5)
d d
temperature is greater than preset 80 ℃ , then opening
degree of the valve rises up, and if it is under 80℃, then Wiebie semi-empirical equation,
valve opening declines down.  B ( m1)
6.908( )
B C
X  1 e (6)
Diesel
Temperature Engine Heat transfer to cooling water,
controlling

hAs Twall  Tgas 

freshwater valve dQw 1
 (7)
pump
Air d w
Intercooler
According to Waschni,
freshwater
circuit
Heat exchanger h  129.8B0.2 P0.8T 0.55v0.8 (8)
SW/FW Heat release rate from cylinder to cooling water is as
shown in figure 2[6].A fitting relationship expression of
seawater inlet outlet proportion of heat release rate to fuel cell power output is
Figure 2. system sketch educed here based on the experimental data. Percent of
heat release from engine cooling water and engine power
Basic model parameters are as shown in Table I. to overall heat production from fuel combustion declines
as torque increases.
TABLE I. BASIC MODEL PARAMETERS
parameter value
Engine model Caterpillar
3512B/1000kW
Freshwater pump 20m3/h
Air inlet temperature ~60℃
Sea water/fresh water heat exchanger Plate heat exchanger
model type
Feedback controlling strategy of PID
temperature regulating valve

B. Engine Performance Model

Performance of diesel is modeled by Wiebie
combustion equations and Woshni heat transfer equations Figure 3. Heat release and power output
combining with experimental data based heat release
model used to describe air intercooler. Other heat sources Heat exchange between turbocharged air and water,
in system like fuel cooler and oil cooler are cooperated as freshwater and seawater is described by traditional heat
part of diesel engine. Nomenclatures in following transfer equations employed for heat exchanger
equations are the same as those stated in [5]. performance computation.
Mass conversation equation,
Q  KAT (9)
dm
dt
  mflx (1)
where K is a coefficient educed by experimental data for
a certain heat exchanger.
Energy conversation equation,
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 hA Tgas  Twall 
d (me) dV
dt
  (mflx  H )   dt
(2)
Based on parameters from engine system in Virginia
submarine, simulating results and experimental results are
Enthalpy conversation equation,
as shown in Table II.
d (  HV ) d
  ( uA eff H ) V  hg A Tgas  Twall  (3) TABLE II. MODELING RESULTS AGAINST EXPERIMENTAL DATA
dt dt
Temperature value Experimental Simulating
Momentum conversation equation, result/℃ result/℃
 u 2 dxA u 2 Freshwater after 33.9 28
d  A   (mflx  u )  4C f  Cp A FW/SW exchanger
d (mlfx) 2 D 2 (4)
 Cylinder water inlet 82.8
dt dx Freshwater outlet 86.1 80
Seawater inlet 26.7 22
Heat release rate of combustion, Seawater outlet 34.5 31

©2014 Engineering and Technology Publishing 76

 Journal of Automation and Control Engineering Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2014

Performance of thermal management is studied here at regulation, it shows a slowly declining line. Though
different environmental seawater temperature and diesel engine cooling water outlet temperature fluctuates
different engine power output. like valve opening evolution line, seawater outlet
Inlet seawater temperature varies at different sea area, temperature increases stably as engine power increases.
the difference can achieve as great as 20K. Affect of this
kind of variation on opening of temperature controlling
valve is as shown in Fig. 3. Engine power output is set at
90% rating power 900kW and inlet seawater temperature
is set to be increasing linearly. And the evolution of
engine cooling water outlet temperature and SW/FW heat
exchanger seawater outlet temperature are as shown in
Fig. 4.
At 90% rating engine power output, increasing of inlet
seawater temperature results in a indistinct declining
valve opening.

Figure 6. Effect of engine power output on valve opening

Figure 4. Effect of seawater inlet temperature on valve opening

As regulating valve opening changes little, engine

cooling water outlet temperature fluctuates little.
Figure 7. Effect of engine power output on outlet water temperature
Increment of seawater temperature keeps about the same
as seawater inlet temperature increases.
SUMMARY
A lumped parametric system model is developed to
study thermal management system performance of
shipboard 1000kW diesel engine. Power output of engine
is calculated by combining widely accepted combustion
and heat transfer model. Heat release rate of engine to
fresh cooling water is modeled by a fitting curve based on
experimental data. Heat transfer in heat exchanger is
modeled by empirical lumped parametric model.
Performance of a ship diesel engine thermal
management system is simulated at different power
output and seawater inlet temperature. The results shown
Figure 5. Effect of seawater inlet temperature on outlet water that inlet seawater temperature variation has relatively
temperature little effect on opening of regulating valve, but engine
power output variation results in notably regulating valve
At different engine power output, heat release to opening fluctuation.
cooling freshwater varies and affect of this kind of
variation on opening of temperature controlling valve is REFERENCES
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©2014 Engineering and Technology Publishing 77

 Journal of Automation and Control Engineering Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2014

Proceedings International Conference on Mechanical Engineering Xingsheng Lao, was born in Hubei province in
and Material Science, Shanghai, China, 2012 central China on 27th September, 1981. received
[4] F. Kitanoski, et al., “An engine heat transfer model for his master degree in power engineering from
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2006. year degree was earned. He is now works as a
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September, 2006 research institute in Wuhan city, China.
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©2014 Engineering and Technology Publishing 78