Fig. 20.Main engine deck of a cargo vessel

Engine rooms are hot, noisy, sometimes dirty, and potentially dangerous. The presence of flammable fuel, high voltage (HV) equipment and internal combustion engines (ICE) means that a serious fire hazard exists in the engine room, which is monitored continuously by the ships engineering staff and various monitoring systems.

Engine Rooms are typically towards the stern, i.e. rear, of the boat from the crews living accommodations. They contain the generating plant normally used to power the ships electrics, often running on separate engines, with an array of smaller generators contributing towards the ships required power levels, with a margin of error, i.e. a ship requiring 300A might employ four 90a generators. 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. The engines will pull sufficient air into the engine room for their use.

An engine room will usually contain multiple engines, either diesel or heavy fuel, the engines are used to provide mechanical power to the gear box, which speeds up from the minimal tick over, typically between 400-1000rpm and operates the ships hydraulic pumps, and most importantly via the propellers, the screws (propellers)...

The engine(s) get their required cooling via means of liquid to liquid heat exchangers connected to fresh seawater or divertible to recirculate to tanks in the engine room which are also full or sea water; both supplies are used to draw heat from the engines via the coolant and oil lines. the heat exchangers are plumbed in such a way that oil is represented by a yellow mark on the flange of the pipes, and relies of paper type gaskets to seal the mating faces of the pipes, sea water or brine, is represented by a green mark on the clanges, and internal coolant is represented by blue marks on the flanges.

III. Answer the following questions:

1. What is an engine room?

2. What does “the machinery space” refer to?

3. Where is engine control room situated?

4. Are engine rooms hot, noisy and potentially dangerous?

5. Why does a serious fire hazard exist in the engine room?

6. Engine rooms are typically towards the stern, aren’t they?

7. What do engine rooms employ if equipped with internal combustion or turbine engines?

8. What does an engine room contain?

9. How do the engines get their cooling?

10. What should be done in engine rooms of individuals are normally present in these rooms?

IV. Ask the questions to the following sentences:

1. Engine room referred to as the “machinery space.”

2. Engine rooms are potentially dangerous.

3. Engine rooms contain the generating plant used to power the ships electrics.

4. The requirement for general ventilation and the requirement for sufficient combustion air are quite different.

5. Engine control room is a room for the ship’s machinery control systems.

V. Use the following words and word combinations in sentences of your own:

Lubrication oil purifier, to refer to smth, next to the engine room, ship’s machinery control systems, the presence of flammable fuel, to be monitored continuously, to be used to power the ships electrics, required power levels, to employ means of providing air, acceptable limits, to contain multiple engines, to require cooling via smth, to draw heat from the engines, to seal the mating faces of the pipes.