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8 comments

79,500 horsepower at 79 rpm

Apr 4, 2021, 8:44 PM
Avatar for gSteph
gSteph
vip member
The view from the other side of the room

Stumbled across this article about the engine in the Ever Given, the ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal.

I wonder how much torque that is? Anybody know the formula? Anybody here ever work on giant (train, ship ?? ) engines?

Here's the link: jalopnik.com

comments (8)

Avatar for doctorevil
doctorevil

Easily found on Google. H = T x RPM/5252. So, T = H x 5252/RPM

So the answer is: 5,285,354 ft/lbs

I thought it more interesting that the second set of numbers in engine nomenclature designates is piston diamater in centimeters, in this case 95cm, which is 37.4 inches. Each cylinder is over 1 yard in diameter.

Avatar for gSteph
gSteph

Thanks, doc. Curious how it's got 11 cylinders, it's a 2-stroke, and the engine family is noted for its compactness and efficiency.

Avatar for doctorevil
doctorevil

I was also curious about the 11 cylinders. Most engines I am familiar with have an even number of cylinders, but I will admit to being totally unfamiliar with engines of this size, so maybe it's common in ship engines. The only other engine I can recall with an odd number of cylinders was the 70s era Saab with 3 cylinders. It was also a two stroke as I recall.

Avatar for doctorevil
doctorevil

Actually, I think Audi had a 5 cylinder engine for a while, also.

Avatar for ATACdawg
ATACdawg

As did Peugeot and Volvo (same engine).

Large ship engines rotate so slowly that dynamic balance isn't a big issue, so the odd number of cylinders is more a case of scaling up horsepower by adding cylinders, which doesn't require many new parts.

Also, the odd cylinder is often used for starting and reversing the engine using compressed air.

Avatar for goldmongerATL
goldmongerATL

You just space the cylinders evenly around the crank. In a 4-stroke, you space them out around 720 degrees of rotation. So in a 4 cylinder you have them 180 degrees part. 120 in a 6. 90 degrees in an 8. So in the Audi 5, they were 144 degrees part. A buddy had one. Had to throw away that extra spark plug when doing a tuneup.

Avatar for goldmongerATL
goldmongerATL

Looked up the Ultra long stroke. That monster has a 3 foot wide cylinder and about a 12-13 foot stroke!

Avatar for minnow
minnow

@dr evil- Several aircraft radial engines have odd number of cylinders. (arranged circularly). The classic DC-3 had 9 cylinders, many prop airliners from the 50's (DC-6, CV240/340/440 had the R2800 with 2 banks of 9 cylinders, 18 total). Some Air Force cargo aircraft had R4360 engine with 4 banks of 7 cylinders, 28 total.

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