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Crankcase Explosions - Crankcase Relief Valves

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REGULATIONS

The provision of crankcase explosion relief valves for marine diesel engines is an international safety requirement
stemming from two sources, IMO SOLAS Chapter II-1 and IACS Unified Requirements M9 and M10.
Summarising, the requirements that relate to explosion relief valves are:

i. Crankcases for engines having a cylinder bore greater than 200mm and above or having a crankcase gross
volume exceeding 0.6m3 are to be provided with explosion relief valves.

ii. Crankcases for engines having a cylinder bore not exceeding 250mm are to be provided with at least one
explosion relief valve at each end of the engine. If an engine has more than eight crank throws an additional
valve is be fitted at the middle of the engine.

iii. Crankcases for engines having a cylinder bore greater than 250mm but not exceeding 300mm are required to
have at least one crankcase explosion relief valve at each alternate crankthrow with a minimum of two valves.

iv. Crankcases for engines having a cylinder bore exceeding 300mm are required to have at least one crankcase
explosion relief valve at each crankthrow.

v. An additional explosion relief valve is required on separate crankcase spaces such as gear or chain cases for
camshaft drives where the gross volume exceeds 0.6m3

vi. The free area of each crankcase relief valve is to be not less than 45cm2 .

vii. The combined free area of all crankcase relief valves is to be not less than 115cm2 per m3 of crankcase gross
volume.

viii. Crankcase explosion relief valves are required to open quickly at an overpressure not exceeding 0.2bar in the
crankcase and close quickly to avoid inrush of air into the crankcase following an explosion.

ix. Crankcase explosion relief valves are required to be of an approved type.

x. The discharges from crankcase explosion relief valves are to be shielded to reduce the possible danger from
emission of flame during an explosion.

Explosion Doors on a Daihatsu

Explosion Doors on a Sulzer ZA40

Explosion Doors on a Sulzer RTA

The size of a crankcase relief valve relates to the free area of the open valve. For a circular valve this is determined by the
expression pDH, where D is the diameter of the valve and H is the valve lift at a pressure not exceeding 0.2 bar. The
diameter of relief valves ranges between 87mm and 705mm, with associated free areas of 59cm2 and 3905cm2. The ratio of
115cm2 free area per m3 of crankcase volume is designed to limit the crankcase pressure rise to 1.3 bar. It is thought by some
experts in the field, that in the very large 2 stroke engines in use today, that the present rules relating to the size of the relief
valves allow the pressure in the crankcase to exceed this 1.3 bar limit, with a corresponding rise in the incidents of damage
and injury to personnel.

Because the valve must be fully open at 0.2 bar, it will start to open at pressures well below this ( as the spring is
compressed, the force required to open the valve increases). Typical opening pressure is about 0.05 bar.

It is important that the valve closes smartly once the excessive pressure has been relieved to minimise the mass of air drawn
in after a primary explosion. Tests on large doors have shown that the weight of the valve disk and unevenness of spring
load on the disk may cause jamming when the door is mounted in the vertical position. It may be prudent to fit two smaller
relief valves instead of one large valve. However, it is thought that this could cause extra turbulence during an explosion,
which in turn increases the violence of the explosion. This is currently under investigation, but no results are yet available.

LINKS
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Crankcase Explosion Forum
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