PTRL3015 Assignment 1

Contents
Question 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Solution 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Question 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Solution 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 5
References .............................................................................................................................................. 8

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Question 1
A drillship is in operation in South Australian Bight at a water depth of 1200 m. Major drilling
equipment, station keeping cranes and other utilities on the ship have the following capacities:

Top drive (50% of the operation being used) 400 hp

Three mud pumps two operational at a time (70% of the drilling being used) 1500 hp each
Hoisting system (60% of the operation being used) 2000 hp
Mud cleaning equipment (50% of the operation being used) 500 hp
Auxiliaries (20% of the time being used) 500 hp
Station keeping (100% of the time being used), 8 thrusters Each has 500 hp
Cranes (30% of the time being used) 500 hp
Galey, rig lighting, life support and ancillaries (100% of the time being used) 100 hp

The drill ship has 4 diesel engines three of them run in one time and the fourth one remains on
standby. The capacity of each engine is as follows:

Output torque of each diesel engine, T 8000 [ft-lbf ]

Speed, N 800 [rpm]
Diesel consumption rate, Wf 70 [gal/hr]
Density of fuel, 𝜌 7.2 [lbm/gal ]
Heat value of fuel, H 19500 [btu/lbm ]
Transmission efficiency, Eth 85%

Unit conversion factors:

1 hp 33000 ft.lb/min
1 btu 776 ft.lb
1 gallon 231 in3
1 bbl 42 gallons

Calculate the following:

1. Describe the principles of AC generation for a 4-stroke diesel engine generator. [10]
2. Describe the principles of AC to DC conversion. [10]
3. Calculate the engine efficiency (thermal efficiency). [15]
4. Estimate fuel that need to be stored on the ship for maintaining drilling operation over a
period of 8 weeks. [25]

Solution 1

1. In four stroke diesel engine, the power is generated by 4 piston strokes where it can move
upwards and downwards. The piston will move up and down two times to complete 2
revolutions. The 4 strokes are named as intake/suction stroke, compression stroke,
power/combustion stroke and exhaust stroke. In the intake stroke, the piston moves from the
top dead centre to the bottom dead centre, creating a vacuum as pressure is reduced which
caused filtered air to enter the cylinder. In the compression stroke, the piston starts moving

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 PTRL3015 Assignment 1

up, compressing the air which produces a high pressure and temperature inside the cylinder.
This high temperature is used for the power stroke for ignition. Hence, in the power stroke,
when the piston is back at the top dead centre, the heat of the compressed air ignites the
diesel fuel and produces a high pressure which pushes the piston down. While the exhaust
valve opens during the exhaust stroke, the piston goes back to the bottom dead centre,
expelling all the burn gases as the piston rises to the top dead centre.

2. AC is converted to DC by using an electrical component called silicon controlled rectifiers also

known as SCR. It is used mainly on a modern electric drilling rigs. As the name itself, SCR
functions as a rectifier that can block power in the reverse direction and permits power in the
forward direction. Hence, it is unidirectional as it can only conducts in one direction. SCRs are
made up of four layers of semiconductor with a special gate that will be triggered when a
current flows through it.

3. The heat energy input to the engine can be expressed as,

w f  H  776
Qi 
33000
Where Qi is in hp, wf is the diesel engine fuel consumption rate in lbm/min and H is the heat
value of fuel in btu/lbm.

Therefore,

 gal lbm 1 hr  btu

 70 hr  7.2 gal  60 min  19500 lb  776 ft  lb f
Qi    m
ft  lb f
33000
min
Qi  3851.78hp

Engine output can be calculated by:

 T
P
33000
Where   2 N is the angular velocity in rad/min,T is the output torque in ft.lbf and N is
the number of revolutions per minute.

Therefore,

 2    800rpm   8000 ft  lb f
P
ft  lb f
33000
min
P  1218.56hp

Overall engine efficiency, Et, can then be calculated with,

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 PTRL3015 Assignment 1

P 1218.56hp
Et    0.316  31.6%
Qi 3851.78hp

Thus, the engine efficiency (thermal efficiency) of the engine is as follows:

Et 0.316
Ee    0.372  37.2%
Eth 0.85

4. Some of the equipment used on the drillship are not running 100% of the time, i.e. top drive
is only operational 50% of the drilling time.

Equipment % operational hp capacity hp required

Top drive 50 400 200
Three mud pumps (2 70 1500 each 2100
operational)
Hoisting system 60 2000 1200
Mud cleaning 50 500 250
equipment
Auxiliaries 20 500 100
Station keeping (8 100 500 each 4000
thrusters)
Cranes 30 500 150
Galey, rig lighting, 100 100 100
life support,
ancillaries
Average total power 8100

The average total power consumption at a given time is calculated as the sum of the output
power required for each equipment as tabulated above.

The overall efficiency is then calculated,

Eo  Ee  Eth  0.372  0.85  0.316  31.6%

BHP 8100
Indicated horsepower, IHP    25603.55hp
Eo 0.316

Hence, the fuel consumption rate,

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IHP
wf 
H 
ft  lb
25603.55hp  33000
wf  min
btu lb  ft lb
19500  776  7.2
lbm btu gal
w f  7.755 gal / min
w f  11167.29 gal / day

Therefore, fuel needed for 8 weeks drilling operation (assuming 7 days per week):
7day
W f  w f  8weeks 
1week
W f  11167.29 gal / day  56 day
W f  625368.3gal
1bbl
W f  625368.3gal 
42 gal
W f  14889.72bbl
W f  14890bbl

Question 2
Consider three single acting triplex pumps on a drilling rig, two of which are currently operating. Each
pump has 5 inch liner (adjustable to 7 inch), 11 inch stroke length, 90 cycles/min (can increase to 120
cycles/min max), 4000 psig discharge pressure and 90% volumetric efficiency.

a) Compute the pump factor in units of gal/cycle at 100% volumetric efficiency. [6]
b) Compute the flow rate in gal/min. [6]
c) Compute the power (hydraulic horse power) that each pump can develop. [6]
d) Consider that in the middle of drilling when both pumps were running at 454 gallon/min. one
of the two operating pumps breaks down and the 3rd pump is waiting for parts to be
replaced. What adjustments can be made to the pump (which is currently operating) to
maintain the current flow rate. [22]

Solution 2

Conversion factors:
1gal = 231 in3
1ft = 12 inch
1hp = 33000 lb.ft/min = 1714 psi.gal/min

a) Data:
dL = 5 inch (adjustable up to 7 inch)
Ls = 11 inch
N = 90 cycles/min (can increase up to 120 cycles/min)

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Ev = 90%
P = 4000 psig

For single acting triplex at 100% efficiency:

Pump factor  3  Vol per cylinder  Ev

   d L2 
Pump factor  3    Ls   Ev
 4 
   (5) 2

Pump factor  3   11  1
 4 
1gal
Pump factor = 647.95 in 3 /cycle×
231in 3
Pump factor = 2.805 gal/cycle
Pump factor  2.81 gal/cycle

So, for one single acting triplex pump, the pump factor is 2.81 gal/cycle. Therefore, for two
operational single acting triplex pump, the pump factor will be 5.61 gal/cycle assuming that
dL, Ls and N stays constant.

b) For single acting triplex, the pump displacement at 90% efficiency is as follows:
Qsa  PF  N
   d L2 
Qsa   3   Ls  Ev   N
 4 
   (5inch) 2

Qsa   3  11inch  0.9   90cycles / min
 4 
66825 3
Qsa  in / min
4
1gal
Qsa  52484.23in3 / min
231in3
2025
Qsa  gal / min
28
Qsa  227 gal / min

So, for one single acting triplex pump, the pump displacement is 227 gal/min. Therefore, for
two operational single acting triplex pump, the pump displacement will be 454 gal/min
assuming that dL, Ls and N stays constant.

c) The hydraulic horsepower for each mud pump can be computed as follows:

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 PTRL3015 Assignment 1

P Q
HP 
gal
psi 
1714 min
hp
2025
4000 psi  gal / min
HP  28
gal
psi 
1714 min
hp
HP  530.23hp  530hp

d) Flow rate for both pumps = 454 gal/min

454
Flow rate for each pump =  227 gal / min
2
Only one single triplex pump works whereby the flow rate needs to be maintained at 454
gal/min which is equivalent to 104874 in3/min. So adjustments has to be made to this one
operating pump in which the liner diameter can be adjusted between 5” to 7” and the pump
speed can be increased to a maximum of 120 cycles/min.

Assuming that the size of liner diameter can only be change as 5”, 5.5”, 6”, 6.5” or 7“, and we
know that the pump displacement needs to be maintained at 454 gal/min, the pump speed
or N can be computed using the formula below:

Qsa  PF  N
Qsa
N
   d L2 
 3  Ls  Ev 
 4 

The parameters Qsa, Ls and Ev remain constant as 104874 inch3/min, 11” and 0.9 respectively.
For dL = 5 inch,

Qsa  PF  N
Qsa
N
   d L2 
 3  Ls  Ev 
 4 
104874in3 / min
N
   (5in) 2 
 3 11in  0.9 
 4 
N  179.8cycles / min

Trial and error calculations were made on Excel to find the best combination parameters for
the liner diameter, dL and pump speed, N as shown on the table below.

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 PTRL3015 Assignment 1

dL Ls Ev Q Q N
inch inch inch3/min gal/min cycles/min
5 11 0.9 104874 454 179.8
5.5 11 0.9 104874 454 148.6
6 11 0.9 104874 454 124.9
6.5 11 0.9 104874 454 106.4
7 11 0.9 104874 454 91.8

Therefore, there are 2 adjustments that can be made to maintain the flow rate at 454 gal/min
which are highlighted above.
 The liner diameter can be adjusted to 6.5 inch and changing the pump speed to 105
cycles/min
 The liner diameter can be adjusted to 7 inch and changing the pump speed to 92
cycles/min

References
En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Four-stroke engine. [online] Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-stroke_engine [Accessed 30 Mar. 2018].

Mechanical Booster. (2014). How does a Four Stroke Diesel Engine (Compression Ignition Engine)
Work? - Mechanical Booster. [online] Available at:
http://www.mechanicalbooster.com/2014/02/how-does-a-four-stroke-diesel-engine-or-
compression-ignition-engine-work.html [Accessed 1 Apr. 2018].

Rahman, S. (2018). Power System. School of Petroleum Engineering, UNSW.

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