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Detecting the crankshaft torsional vibration of diesel engines for combustion related diagnosis

Torsional vibration of diesel engine crankshafts has long been studied for reliability purposes. This papers extends the concept by demonstrating how single-ended crankshaft speed measurement using a shaft encoder (or a Hall effect probe proximate to the starter ring) can reveal the relative power contributions of each cylinder in a multi-cylinder engine, and also the presence of incipient faults which are near-impossible to detect using conventional approaches. The method is now used extensively in industry from marine through power generation applications, and has served as the basis for real-time cylinder pressure reconstruction (also developed by the authors).