remote radiator affecting turbocharged diesel genset?

[woodseng]

We are spec'ing three 1000 kVA 600V diesel gensets, one of the manufacturers siad that remoting the radiator might cause prblems with the turbocharger due to cooling lag time. Any experience out there?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Not unless it's a mile away.

Add some salt to whatever else that guy says.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[TheBlacksmith]

Are you referring to the engine coolant radiator or a charge air cooler? If it is the charge air cooler the lenght of the lines will reduce the turbocharger output unless you increase the diameter accordingly.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Agreed; I'm talking about the coolant radiator.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[FreddyNurk]

Its been suspected for a while that some of our engines that we have (nominated rating 300kW) have experienced issues due to rather long charge air cooling pipework, though this has not been proven beyond doubt.

Where it appears to be an issue is for any sort of block load on the engine, its made worse if there isn't much load on the engine at the time.

The sites with most issues have long lines with remote mount radiators.

 

[Comcokid]

About 20 years ago a major RV manufacturer (who I won't name) designed an all new gasoline rear-engine 32' motor home but kept the radiator in the front. Despite consultants, boost pumps, larger pipes, etc, they kept having problems with the large V8 overheating and blowing. After shipping about 30 vehicles they recalled all of them, refunded the money, and scrapped the vehicles and the entire model line (allegedly due to a brake issue). Million$ of dollar$ of engineering, tooling, and product written off and I know they were still having overheating problems. Apparently even with rear engine busses, there is a reason the radiator is kept in the rear.

If your genset supplier is hesitant to remote the radiator, you might want to listen.

 

[catserveng]

The rep is likely talking charge air cooling, since I don't think any manufacturer can meet current emissions regulations with a jacket water cooled aftercooler.

Cooling lag is a new one on me, the primary concern would be the overall pressure drop, frankly a long return run from a remote charge air cooler can actually help further lower inlet air temp.

The other drawback of remote mounting a charge air cooler a long distance is you can get a pressure lag effect, and may affect transient response.

I've done a number of units with charge air coolers (combination units actually) mounted as far as 50 feet away with no problems. We did four units near your size about 5 years ago that the cooler units were about 90 feet away from the engine, all of those units had an issue with transient response, but the system operation could live with the lower response and the customer accepted the system as installed.

Hope that helps, Mike L.

 

[FreddyNurk]

Catserveng has a nice summary of some of the issues reported.

That said, remote mounting jacket water cooling systems doesn't present a problem providing all the appropriate considerations have been taken into account for size of coolant pipelines.

All of our power stations have remote mount jacket water systems above 250kW engine size.

 

[Ceast]

You could always measure the delta T across the aftercooler circuit.

 

[woodseng]

Hi, and thanks for the info. This issue is definitely the charge air cooler (not engine cooling). The supplier has now confirmed that 10 or so feet would be OK. I expect that remoting the rad to the roof (we have a limited building footprint) might end up in 15' to 20' there and back.