1. What is the purpose of relief valve in the steering gear and where is it located?.

Sketch the steering gear of a large motor ship, describing the hunting gear. Hydraulic actuators are provided with relief and bypass valves between complementary pairs of cylinders or chambers of vane gears. The relief valves are set to lift at pressures above the normal maximum.

HUNTING GEAR:

Sequence of operation: 1. wheel midship, receiver midship, pump control zero, tiller feed back zero. 2. wheel turned to starboard, receiver point R to R, pump control to P, pivoting about T. Pumping starts, pushes rams to left, turns rudder to starboard

3. Rudder turns, tiller feedback pushes T to T, pump control zero, pumping stops, rudder stops at starboard. 4. wheel brought to mid-ship, receiver midship, pump control moves to P pivoting about T. Pumping starts again, in reverse direction, pushes rams to the right, rudder turns port 5. tiller feed back pushes T to T, pump control zero, pumping stops and rudder stops at mid ship. The buffer spring in the hunting gear link is provided to take up any excess movement beyond the maximum stroke of the pump. This extra movement is stored by the compressed spring and used to reset itself as the hunting gear approaches the no effect point. It also takes up the effect of heavy seas on the rudder.

2. What are the different types of rudders? What is the pintle bearing and where would you find it? How is the rudder drop measured?

A rudder allows the ship to turn, simple plates have been superseded by plates welded to cast or fabricated frame. Rudders are hollow and so provide for some buoyancy . In order to minimise the risk of corrosion internal surfaces are provided with a protective coating and some are even filled with foam. A drain plug is provided to allow for the drainage of water , enable internal inspection to be made using fiber optic device and even allow for the limited application of a protective coating. Plates are welded to the frames internally in order to provide flush fitting , the final closing plate must be welded externally. A means of lifting is provided taking the form of a tube as close to the center of gravity as possible. Rudders are tested to a pressure head 2.4m above the top of the rudder. If the rudder has its entire area aft of the rudder stock then it is unbalanced .A rudder with between 20 and 40% of its area forward of the stock is balanced since there will be some angle at which the resultant moment on the stock due to the water force will be zero. Most modern rudders are of the semi-balanced design. This means that that a certain proportion of the water force acting on the after part of the rudder is counter acted by the force acting on the for'd half of the rudder; hence, the steering gear can be lighter and smaller. A rudder may lift due to the

buoyancy effect, the amount of lift is limited by the jumper bar fitted to the stern frame. The jumper/rudder clearance must be less than the steering gear cross head clearance to prevent damage. A rudder is supported by means of a bearing pintle or a lower bearing depending upon the design. Where a lower bearing is employed the rudder is actually supported on split bearing rings fitted on the lower face of the rudder and the upper face of the sole piece ( the extended lower section of the stern frame upon which the rudder sits)

SEMI BALANCED RUDDER

Semi balanced rudder with rudder horn

Fully balanced rudder

To reduce the amount of torque required to turn a rudder the pivot point is moved back from the leading edge. The amount of torque then varies depending on the angle of attack. Zero torque leads to instability with rudder moving within its clearances.

Spade Rudder

The reduced diameter at the upper part is purely to transmit torque. The lower section must also support bending moments and hence increased diameter. With twin rudder ships the inner rudder must turn through a greater angle than the outer. This is achieved by having the tiller arm at an angle to the centre line of the rudder. It is possible to have the blades angled in or out when the wheel is amid ships to increase propulsive efficiency.

3. a. Explain with a sketch, a safematic electro hydraulic steering gear system. b. What is the use of the following in the above system. i) isolating valve (ii) relief valve (iii) hunting lever

4. Sketch and describe a 4 ram hydraulic steering gear system and explain safematic operation. Detailed description of four ram gear hydraulic system:

The drawing of a four ram gear (Figure 9.14) shows the Rapson slides, the combined guide and brace arrangement previously described and the control box with its connecting link from the rudder stock. A second link from the stock to the rudder angle indicator transmitter, is also shown. The hydraulic circuit (Figure 9.15) incorporates an arrangement of stop and bypass valves in the chest VC, which enable the gear to be operated on all four or on any two adjacent cylinders but not with two diagonally disposed cylinders. Inactive cylinders are isolated from the pumps by valves while the

B1 - B4 - BYPASS VALVES.

C1 - C4

CYLINDER ISOLATING VALVES

usable combination of cylinders. It will be seen that the torque available from two cylinders is only onehalf of that from four, even when both power units are working, though the speed of operation will be increased if both are used.

The mechanical arrangement of the control gear and the basic hydraulic system, in all but their layout (Figure) are identical with the two ram gear already described. The valve chest however, must cater for four cylinders in all useful combinations. This demands four cylinder isolating valves, C1-C4, and four bypass valves, BlB4. The emergency hand pump arrangement, its directional control valve, the main system relief and the locking valves remain unchanged, as do the remote, local and emergency control arrangements. Normally, the pump and the four cylinder isolating valves, Pi, P2, C1-C4, and the rudder locking valves LV, are open. The bypass valves BlB4 and the emergency hand pump isolating valves HP are closed. Power units may be brought into action or shut down, by starting or stopping the associated motors. To change from four ram to two ram working, it is only necessary to make two cylinders inoperative by closing their isolating valves C1-C4 and opening the bypass valves between them. For example to steer on cylinders 1 and 3, valves C2 and C4 are closed; B2 and B4 are opened so that cylinders numbers 2 and 4 are isolated from the main hydraulic system and the oil in them is free to flow from one to the other. The cylinder isolating valves and the bypass valves are shown as separate items in diagram but each pair may be combined as a double seating valve so that, as any cylinder is isolated from the main hydraulic

SAFEMATIC Structural features:

The SAFEMATIC complies with the latest rules and regulations of SOLAS 1974 and all leading classification societies. Connectible to all 4-cylinder steering gears allow automatic emergency operation with two independent mechanical and hydraulical systems. In case of pipe burst or other defects involving oil leaking, the leakage can be isolated and steering capability is maintained with two cylinders and one pump unit. The SAFEMATIC detects, isolates and switches off the defective system automatically within a few seconds. Steering gear remains operational with the remaining system. The ship's manoeuvrability is restored immediately and loss of hydraulic fluid is kept to a minimum, due to the very short time required for automatically detecting, isolating and switching over. All 4-cylinder steering gears have still their hand operated stop valves for the same purposes.

5. a. Explain with a sketch an electro hydraulic steering gear system b. What is the use of following in above: (i) isolating valves (ii) relief valve (iii) expansion tank. 6. a. Sketch and describe an electro hydraulic steering gear system b. Explain how automatic failsafe arrangement is achieved in such a system? 7. Sketch and describe an electro hydraulic steering gear system and explain the use of following: (i) isolating valve and bypass valve (ii) relief valves (iii) vent valve

i. Bypass valves are normally closed but can be opened on a two cylinder gear to enable emergency steering to be used. On a four cylinder gear, one pair of cylinders can be bypassed while the other pair provides emergency steering at reduced torque Isolating valves are provided at each cylinder or rotary vane chamber which when closed will hold the rudder by trapping the oil in the chambers. Isolating valves are also fitted to pumps so that a pump can be completely shut off from the circuit and removed for servicing while steering is continued with other pump.

8. Explain the working of a 2 ram hydraulic steering gear. Explain the use of floating lever in the system. Explain the movements of various links during a 5 port movement. Detailed description of two ram gear hydraulic system: With reference to the sketch (Figure), the duplicate power units PUl and PU2, each have a continuously running electric motor driving, through a flexible coupling a variable delivery axial-cylinder pump and auxiliary pumps, A1, A2. The latter draw filtered oil from the reservoir T and discharge through a 10 micron filter FlO to supply oil at constant pressure to the servo-controls SG to the automatic changeover valves CO, to maintain a flow of cool oil through the main pump casings and to make up any loss of oil from main system.

When the main pumps are at no-stroke, the auxiliary pumps discharge to the reservoir via a pressurelimiting valve PC20, set at 20 bar, and to t purnp casings. When the main pumps are on-stroke, the auxiliary puxn discharge to the main pump suction.

A main pump may be brought into operation at any position of the gear, any time, by starting the motor. The servo-operated automatic change-over valves (Figure) are held in the bypass condition by a spring, while the associated pump is at rest. When a pump is started, the auxiliary pump pressure builds up, overcomes the spring, closes the bypass and connects the main pump to the hydraulic system. Thus, the main pump starts in the unloaded condition; it cannot be motored when idle by cross pressure flow and load is held off until the electric motor high starting current has reduced to running level When pump is stopped, the spring returns the valve to the bypass condition. The spring end of the valve is connected to the constant pressure line and, to obviate hydraulic locking, the spring chamber has a bleed line. From t automatic change-over valves CO the main pump discharge passes to the pump isolating valves, Pi and P2, and to the cylinders, through the locking valves LV. These valves are incorporated in a group valve chest so arranged to provide cross connections with the bypass valve BP, relief valve RV, and the emergency hand pump shut off valves HP, with appropriate non return valves NR In open water it is usual to have one power unit in use. If quicker response is required from the gear, two units may be run simultaneously to double oil flow and increase speed of operation. Normally the gear is controlled from the bridge through an electric telemotor and local control box, but a local control hand wheel is also provided as a means of communication with the bridge.

9. Sketch and explain the working of a four ram electro hydraulic steering gear system used on a large oil tanker. Explain the purpose of different valves used in the system and write procedure to change over to emergency steering for any one of the ships you have worked on.

10. a. Sketch and describe a 4 ram hydraulic steering gear system. b. Explain how automatic fail safe arrangement is achieved in such system. 11. a. Sketch and explain the working of a four ram electro hydraulic steering gear system used on a large oil tanker. b. Discuss the system faults likely to occur in the system. a. answered in one of the previous questions. b. Common faults and causes: External leaks: External leak in pipe joints, pump suction and glands causing loss of oil. Air can also enter the system whenever there is an external leak. When the header tank level is low, air can be sucked in. Easy to detect as the leaks are visible. Internal leaks: Bypass valve leak high to low pressure Turn wheel to one side and hold for half hour no pressure drop

Difficult to detect because no oil patches can be detected Rudder slips back to mid ship external or internal leak (oil pressure drop, unable to hold rudder in the particular position) Excess movement before receiver moves air in the system (work expended to compress air before hydraulic action) Air in the system : If air is in the system, there will be delay in response when turning the wheel. When turning the wheel, there is corresponding relationship between the number of turns of the wheel and the pressure obtained. For example 4 turns for 40 bar pressure, 3 turns for 30 bar pressure. Any deviation from that can indicate, air in the system