The Ship Power Supplier

Wider choice in fuel consumption

for Sulzer engines by German Weisser
Engine Performance, Wärtsilä Switzerland Ltd

Fig. 1 The first engine employing Delta Tuning is this 45,760 kW Sulzer 8RT-flex96C engine seen here in April 2004
in the course of erection at HSD Engine Co Ltd, Korea.

As the flexibility of the RT-flex common-
rail system is explored in Sulzer low-
speed engines, a new benefit has been
developed that extends the choice in
fuel consumption through Delta Tuning.
Delta Tuning has been introduced in Sulzer
RT-flex common-rail engines to provide
lower fuel consumption in the effective
operating load range. It is offered as an
alternative to the original tuning to allow
shipowners and operators to choose the
BSFC (brake specific fuel consumption)
curve which best suits their ship’s operating
pattern. This is made possible by the wide
flexibility in engine settings provided by the
computer-controlled common-rail systems
of Sulzer RT-flex engines.
Choice in fuel consumption is not
completely new. Since about 1980, Sulzer
low-speed engines have been offered at
ratings lower than the maximum
continuous rating (now designated the R1
point) with benefits in lower fuel
consumption. There has, of course, also
been the benefit of improved propulsive
efficiency through the possibility of reduced

24 - Wärtsilä 3-2004
 4
RTA96C engines
2
RT-flex96C engines:

171 g/kWh
Standard tuning
0
Delta Tuning

BSFC, g/kWh
-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
50% 75% 100%
Load

Fig. 2 The new alternative BSFC curve for Sulzer RT-flex96C engines given by Delta
Tuning compared with the original BSFC curves. All curves shown are for engines
complying with the IMO NOX regulation.

4
RTA96C engines
2
RT-flex96C engines:

171 g/kWh
Standard tuning
0
Delta Tuning
BSFC, g/kWh

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
50% 75% 100%
Load

Fig. 3 The new alternative BSFC curve for Sulzer RT-flex58T-B engines given by Delta
Tuning compared with the original BSFC curves. All curves shown are for engines
complying with the IMO NOX regulation.

propeller rotational speeds. This concept
led to the layout fields which we have used
for some years.
It gave a choice but there were penalties
in reduced engine power or alternatively a
need for ‘more engine’ in terms of more
cylinders or larger cylinder bore for the same
power. Now, with the Sulzer RT-flex
common-rail engines, we are at the
beginning of a new era in engine technology.
This is encouraging new ways of thinking
which is leading to new concepts.
In the past, camshaft-controlled engines
were severely restricted by the fixed timing
given mechanically by the cams. The
change to electronically-controlled
common-rail systems, however, allows the
timing, rate and pressure of fuel injection
and the exhaust valve operation to be fully
controllable. This flexibility offers patterns
of operation which cannot be achieved by
purely mechanical systems.
Rather than ‘electronically-controlled’, it
would be more accurate to describe Sulzer
RT-flex engines as being computer-
controlled. This is because in the RT-flex
system, engine functions are fully

3-2004 Marine News - 25

 The Ship Power Supplier
programmable, perhaps limited only by the
designers’ imagination and the laws of
nature. The challenge is to use this freedom
to create practical benefits for engine users.
The first tangible benefits of the extreme
flexibility in engine setting possible with the
RT-flex computer-controlled common-rail
system are the engines’ greatly improved
performance in smokeless operation at all
loads, and their ability to run at very low
speeds. Both have been reported in previous
articles of Marine News.
Reduced BSFC
The flexibility of the RT-flex system has
now been used to reduce fuel consumption
in the effective operating range of most
engines. At 75% load, the fuel saving can
be up to 2 g/kWh depending upon the
engine model and the rating point selected.
No changes of hardware are involved; the
development only requires changes in the
RT-flex software to adjust the respective
engine setting parameters.
At the first stage of development of
RT-flex engines, the main objective has
been to obtain the same performance
standards as with the mechanical camshaft
RTA-type engines, particularly with respect
to power, speed, fuel consumption, exhaust
emissions, and cylinder pressures, etc.
It must be pointed out that RTA engines
have always been highly competitive in fuel
consumption right across the load range
owing to the use of variable injection
timing (VIT) and, in the case of the Sulzer
RTA84T engines since 1991, also the use
of variable exhaust valve closing (VEC)
which further reduces the part-load brake
specific fuel consumption (BSFC). These
benefits have already been carried over to
the computer-controlled common-rail
systems of the RT-flex engines.
However, as combustion in the part-load
range is better in RT-flex engines than with
RTA engines, there is a benefit in fuel
consumption for RT-flex engines at lower
loads. This slightly lower BSFC at part load
is the result of the fuel injection pressure
being kept higher at those loads with the
common-rail injection system.
The new step is to introduce a choice of
fuel consumption curve. Two fuel
consumption curves are now available as
26 - Wärtsilä
standard for RT-flex engines: the original
one as outlined above and the new
alternative, a lower curve with reduced
BSFC throughout the load range up to
90%. This has been achieved by adapted
engine tuning - termed Delta Tuning. In
both the original tuning and Delta Tuning,
the RT-flex engines comply with the NOX
regulation of Annex VI of the MARPOL
73/78 convention, commonly referred to as
the IMO NOX regulation.
How Delta Tuning works
Delta Tuning involves tailoring the firing
pressure to engine load by adapting
injection timing, injection pressure and
exhaust valve timing. The firing pressure is
kept as high as possible at 75% load to
observe a minimum required margin to the
NOX limit, and is increased above 75%
load to reach the maximum firing pressure
at about 90% load. It is then reduced again
for higher loads. Below 75% load, the firing
pressure is kept as high as is possible within
the limit of the allowable firing ratio (firing
pressure/compression pressure).
The result is that the BSFC is
significantly lowered in the mid- and
low-load range, at all loads less than 90%
load, but then increased at high engine
loads (90-100% load). This emphasis on
mid-load reductions in BSFC brings a real
benefit to engine users while allowing a
higher BSFC at full load to enable the
engines to comply with the IMO NOX
regulation.
With the total flexibility offered by the
computer-controlled common-rail system,
it would be technically possible to lower
BSFC at all engine loads and speeds. With
RT-flex engines, all the relevant parameters
can be continuously varied so that the
engine can - within the physical limits -
follow any specified BSFC curve as engine
load and speed are varied. The two key
limitations today, however, are in the needs
to comply with the IMO NOX regulation
and to ensure no reduction of engine
reliability and durability.
Owing to the natural laws of physics and
chemistry, there is always a trade-off
between engine efficiency and NOX
emissions. Lowering the BSFC curve for an
engine is almost inevitably associated with
an increase in NOX emissions and only the
NOX emission penalty for achieving a
certain BSFC reduction may vary between
individual measures.
As the IMO NOX limit is specified as a
weighted average of NOX emissions
measured at certain engine loads and
speeds, the strategy with Delta Tuning is
thus to accept increases in NOX emissions
over a useful wide load range and to
compensate with a reduction in NOX
emissions at full load.
Two BSFC curves as alternatives
The result of Delta Tuning is a BSFC curve
with a different emphasis than the original
BSFC curve. Thus the two BSFC curves are
offered as alternatives. They give
shipowners and operators the opportunity
to choose the BSFC curve which best suits
their vessels’ operating pattern. Yet, in both
cases, the engines comply with the IMO
NOX regulation.
Delta Tuning, however, is only offered
for Sulzer RT-flex engines whose contracted
maximum continuous rating (CMCR) is in
the upper region of the engine model’s
rating field, and it yields the greatest benefit
close to the R1 rating point. This is because
there is a decreasing margin in NOX
emissions against the IMO limit with
greater derating.
The engine information for RT-flex
engines with Delta Tuning will be readily
obtainable using the ENSEL engine
selection software and the WinGTD
general technical data software, which are
freely available from local Wärtsilä offices.
In both cases, the software includes a
selection button for Delta Tuning. Once
Delta Tuning is selected, the software will
restrict the engine layout field to the area
for which Delta Tuning gives worthwhile
results.
Conclusion
Delta Tuning demonstrates the flexibility of
the computer-controlled common-rail
systems incorporated in Sulzer RT-flex
engines. It brings a clear benefit to
shipowners and operators, allowing them to
choose how to adapt their engines better to
individual operating requirements. n
3-2004