Medium speed diesel engine turbocharger

[dieselvic]

Does anyone have any experience with turbocharger blade failure due to frequent water washing?

 

[ivymike]

Not me, but a point of clarification - when you say medium speed, do you mean 900-1200rpm?

 

[dieselvic]

Medium speed diesel in the power generating field is generally 500 to 1000 rpm.

 

[BrianPetersen]

Was the water getting into the engine air intake ... ? ? ?

Can't see how it could cause trouble otherwise, but water into the air intake WILL cause big trouble.

 

[patprimmer]

I believe from anecdotal evidence that injecting controlled amounts of water before a turbocharger on SI engines can cause the compressor blades to erode and fail.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[itsmoked]

We used a roots blower off of a 2-71 as a water pump.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[21121956]

Hello everybody:

At the question, how a turbocharger should react to mechanical cleaning?, the expert Beat Stärkle gave more or less the following answer:

About the turbine blade tip rubbing, when inspecting after mechanical cleaning, one can recognize that the turbine blade tip to shroud ring gap has been increased. With this, certainly rubbing and thermal distortion has taken place.

Today, this rubbing phenomenon is not completely understood yet. Experimental investigations are run on turbocharger test rigs of the more important turbo and engine manufacturers.

For the moment it is anticipated to confirm that a hard fouling layer inside the shroud ring and heavy thermal shocks by excessive water washing favor the rubbing. Apart from this, thermal distortion or differential thermal expansion of components during transients could also be imagined.

Sound remedies depend thus strongly on the understanding of the relevant mechanism.

When in charge of the Maintenance and Operation of a power plant, one should answer the following decisive questions:

- Are both TSW (turbine side washing) and CSW (compressor side washing) functional?
- After washing, is there still a fouling layer?
- Has been the turbine blade tip rubbing?
- Can any thermal distortion or related effects be found?
- Are the nozzle rings evenly cleaned?
- How is the state of the compressor stages?
- How about the fuel oil properties, fuel oil conditioning, combustion air density and charge air humidity?

 

[kingnero]

I might be of help, as I work in a factory where they manufacture diesel engines (upto 4 MW), and a sister company provides us with the turbochargers.
Could you ask the question in a more specific way?
What kind of water washing? Coming from where? What specific failure?