Affordable hybrid thermography for merchant vessel engine room fire safety

Hot surfaces in ship engine rooms are the risk objects that most frequently contribute to fire ignition. Thermography, especially when using thermal cameras, offers many advantages over more common infrared thermometers, but dedicated systems are often prohibitively expensive. An affordable hybrid approach was thus tested in this study, where a low-cost thermal camera smartphone was paired with a common infrared thermometer. Measurements were taken in situ during a sea voyage in an engine room under normal operating conditions, and the surfaces of the main engine, the generating set auxiliary engine, and the exhaust gas boiler were tested. Several areas were discovered to be well above the generally-accepted temperature limit of 220°C, primarily due to absent or poor insulation. Clear recommendations for remediation are made, and the proposed testing method offers fast, easy, effective, and affordable inspection.