DECSIM—A PC-based Diesel Engine Cycle and cooling system simulation program

This paper describes a PC-based Diesel Engine Cycle and cooling system SIMulation (DECSIM) program that was developed at the Australian Maritime College. DECSIM has been validated against a variety of marine engines and can be used to predict the steady state performance characteristics of two- and four-stroke diesel engines. The program may be used to obtain pressure-crank angle, pressure-volume, and heat release diagrams. Applications of DECSIM are discussed that show how the program can be used to assist marine engineers in fault diagnosis and designers to predict the thermal behaviour of combustion chamber components. The program may also be used to model cooling system behaviour, and so can be used by design engineers to optimize the dimensions of components such as heat exchangers and pumps with acceptable system pressure drop characteristics.