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On a
ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguishe ...
, the engine room (ER) is the compartment where the machinery for
marine propulsion Marine propulsion is the mechanism or system used to generate thrust to move a watercraft through water. While paddles and sails are still used on some smaller boats, most modern ships are propelled by mechanical systems consisting of an electri ...
is located. To increase a vessel's safety and chances of surviving damage, the machinery necessary for the ship's operation may be segregated into various spaces. The engine room is generally the largest physical compartment of the machinery space. It houses the vessel's prime mover, usually some variations of a heat engine (
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...
,
diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...
, gas or steam turbine). On some ships, there may be more than one engine room, such as forward and aft, or port or starboard engine rooms, or may be simply numbered. The engine room is usually located near the bottom, at the rear or aft end of the vessel, and comprises few compartments. This design maximizes the cargo carrying capacity of the vessel and situates the prime mover close to the propeller, minimizing equipment cost and problems posed from long shaft lines. On some ships, the engine room may be situated mid-ship, such as on vessels built from 1900 to the 1960s, or forward and even high, such as on diesel-electric vessels.


Equipment


Engines

The engine room of a motor vessel typically contains several engines for different purposes. Main, or propulsion, engines are used to turn the ship's
propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
and move the ship through the water. They typically burn
diesel oil Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...
or heavy fuel oil, and may be able to switch between the two. There are many propulsion arrangements for motor vessels, some including multiple engines, propellers, and gearboxes. Smaller, but still large engines drive electrical generators that provide power for the ship's electrical systems. Large ships typically have three or more synchronized generators to ensure smooth operation. The combined output of a ship's generators is well above the actual power requirement to accommodate maintenance or the loss of one generator. On a steamship, power for both electricity and propulsion is provided by one or more large boilers giving rise to the alternate name boiler room. High pressure steam from the boiler is used to drive
reciprocating engines A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
or turbines for propulsion, and also
turbo generator A turbo generator is an electric generator connected to the shaft of a steam turbine or gas turbine for the generation of electric power. Large steam-powered turbo generators provide the majority of the world's electricity and are also used ...
s for electricity. Besides propulsion and auxiliary engines, a typical engine room contains many smaller engines, including generators, air compressors, feed pumps, and fuel pumps. Today, these machines are usually powered by small diesel engines or electric motors, but may also use low-pressure steam.


Engine cooling

The engine(s) get required cooling from liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers connected to fresh seawater or divertible to recirculate through tanks of seawater in the engine room. Both supplies draw heat from the engines via the coolant and oil lines. Heat exchangers are plumbed in so that oil is represented by a yellow mark on the flange of the pipes, and relies on paper type gaskets to seal the mating faces of the pipes. Sea water, or brine, is represented by a green mark on the flanges and internal coolant is represented by blue marks on the flanges.


Thrusters

In addition to this array of equipment is the ship's thruster system (on modern vessels fitted with this equipment), typically operated by
electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate force ...
s controlled from the bridge. These thrusters are laterally mounted propellers that can suck or blow water from port to starboard (i.e. left to right) or vice versa. They are normally used only in maneuvering, e.g. docking operations, and are often banned in tight confines, e.g.
drydocks A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
. Thrusters, like main propellers, are reversible by hydraulic operation. Small embedded hydraulic motors rotate the blades up to 180 degrees to reverse the direction of the thrust. A variant on this is the
azipod Azipod is a trademark azimuth thruster pod design, a marine propulsion unit consisting of a fixed pitch propeller mounted on a steerable gondola ("pod") containing the electric motor driving the propeller, allowing ships to be more maneuverable ...
, which are propellers mounted in a swiveling pod that can rotate to direct thrust in any direction, making fine steering easier, and allowing a ship to move sideways up to a dock, when used in conjunction with a
bow thruster Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...
.


Safety


Fire precautions

Engine rooms are noisy, hot, usually dirty, and potentially dangerous. The presence of flammable
fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy bu ...
, high voltage (HV) electrical equipment and
internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal com ...
s (ICE) means that a serious fire hazard exists in the engine room, which is monitored continuously by the ship's
engine department An engine department or engineering department is an organizational unit aboard a ship that is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and repair of the propulsion systems and the support systems for crew, passengers, and cargo. These includ ...
and various monitoring systems.


Ventilation

If equipped with internal combustion or turbine engines, engine rooms employ some means of providing air for the operation of the engines and associated ventilation. If individuals are normally present in these rooms, additional ventilation should be available to keep engine room temperatures to acceptable limits. If personnel are not normally in the engine space, as in many pleasure boats, the ventilation need only be sufficient to supply the engines with intake air. This would require an unrestricted hull opening of the same size as the intake area of the engine itself, assuming the hull opening is in the engine room itself. Commonly, screens are placed over such openings and if this is done, airflow is reduced by approximately 50%, so the opening area is increased appropriately. The requirement for general ventilation and the requirement for sufficient combustion air are quite different. A typical arrangement might be to make the opening large enough to provide intake air plus 1000 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) for additional ventilation. Engines pull sufficient air into the engine room for their own operation. However, additional airflow for ventilation usually requires intake and exhaust blowers.


History

Engine rooms were separated from its associated
fire room On a ship, the fire room, or FR or boiler room or stokehold, referred to the space, or spaces, of a vessel where water was brought to a boil. The steam was then transmitted to a separate engine room, often (but not always) located immediately aft, ...
on fighting ships from the 1880s through the 1960s. If either experienced damage putting it out of action, the associated engine room could get steam from another fire room.


See also

*
Engine department An engine department or engineering department is an organizational unit aboard a ship that is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and repair of the propulsion systems and the support systems for crew, passengers, and cargo. These includ ...
*
Marine propulsion Marine propulsion is the mechanism or system used to generate thrust to move a watercraft through water. While paddles and sails are still used on some smaller boats, most modern ships are propelled by mechanical systems consisting of an electri ...
* Marine fuel management * Mechanical room *
Electrical room An electrical room is a room or space in a building dedicated to electrical equipment. Its size is usually proportional to the size of the building; large buildings may have a main electrical room and subsidiary electrical rooms. Electrical equip ...
*
Fire room On a ship, the fire room, or FR or boiler room or stokehold, referred to the space, or spaces, of a vessel where water was brought to a boil. The steam was then transmitted to a separate engine room, often (but not always) located immediately aft, ...

Marine Engineers Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engine Room Ship compartments Marine propulsion