Abstract
Two stroke low speed diesel engines are widely used for marine propulsion or as power plant prime mover. These engines have many merits which includes higher thermal efficiency, mobility and durability. Yet various annoying vibrations occur sometimes in ships or at the plant itself. Of these vibrations, torsional vibration is very important and dictates a careful investigation during the engme's initial design stage for safe operation. With the rule and limit on torsional vibration in place, shaft strength fatigue due to torsional vibration however demands further analysis which possibly can be incorporated in the classification societies' rule and limit. In addition, the shaft's torsional vibration stresses can be calculated equivalently from accumulated fatigue cycles number due to transient torsional vibration in time domain. In this paper, authors suggest a new estimation method combined with Palmgren-Miner equation. A 6S70MC-C ($25,320ps{\times}91rpm$) engine for ship propulsion was selected as a case study. Angular velocity was measured, instead of shaft's strain, for simplified measurement and it was converted to torsional vibration stress for accumulated fatigue cycle numbers in shafting life time. Likewise, the accumulated fatigue calculation was compared with shaft fatigue strength limit. This new method can be further realized and confirmed in ship with two stroke low speed diesel engine.
