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Oral Exam Questions

These are in no particular order as I am remembering them as I


write. Would never remember the order adrenaline was
pumping.
Walk in to building handed my documents across the desk
Enter room 10 minutes later
Started by asking about my ships (cruise line)
Generator
NER
No voltage on genny what is the problem? And solution?
Breaker not closing why would this be? (Unrelated to above)
Propulsion What type propulsion? (HV electrical)
How does the prop motor work in reverse ie moving ship astern
Cyclo, Synchro converters how they operate, thyristors etc.
Emergency Supplies
Testing emg genny
Trips and alarms (no trips)
Emg Switchboard consumers
Blackout ship restart procedure
Emergency lighting regs
Emg exit lights regs and supplies
Low level lighting regs
UPS
How does it work?
What do they supply?
Testing?

Emg storage battery testing safety procedures etc.


Hazardous Areas
Where on board?
What makes something flameproof?
What makes something Intrinsically safe?
Explosion proof light fixture safety features Auto isolation etc?
Steering Gear
Supplies
Trips and Alarms
Testing trips and alarms oil levels etc.
Safety
What fixed firefighting equipment do you have?
Procedure for a CO2 release the situation given was a fire on
one of the main engines. Shut off valves, fire dampers and how
the co2 is released and who authorises
Enclosed space entry permits, regulations, what gasses you
looking out for (asphyxiates, toxic and explosive)
BA check start to finish
Motors and starters
Star delta starter what is the purpose, why is the current less in
star than delta, what would happen if it stuck in star how would
it trip?
Regular motor not working he asked what the problem could
be? Other tripping methods.
GMDSS and Nav
He only asked about my experience in this field so told him
about opening up the radar and the normal daily test calls and
logging comms etc.

Luckily after all of that I came out with a pass. The guy really
didnt seem like he was there to fail you he kind of guides you
in the right direction
I arrived 15 minutes before my appointment and reported to reception. After
about 20 minutes the examiner called me in.
He asked for my discharge book and inquired what type of vessel I was last on.
1. Draw distribution diagram (examiner looked through my TRB whilst I did
this).
2. Then talked through the main components of the diagram.
3. What types of Generator protection do you have?
4. How do you test these?
5. Generator circuit breaker is not closing. What could cause this?
6. Why would a generator have no voltage?
7. What would you do if a generator lost its residual magnetism?
8. What could cause a generator to lose its residual magnetism?
9. You have an earth fault, how do you go about tracing it?
10.What tests should you perform on emergency generator?
11.What can the emergency generator supply?
12.Draw star-delta starter. (Only wanted power circuit, again he looked
through my TRB)
13.Explain start-delta operation using diagram.
14.Why do we use star-delta?
15.How would you know if the motor switched to delta? (I said running lamp,
or if left in star it would over heat and trip on over current, so if motor
didnt trip all was OK?)
16.What would happen if a motor single phased?
17.What protection do you have for single phasing? (this lead to OCRS)
18.What types of OCR are there? (Bimetallic will trip motor on single phasing)
19.Operation of Bimetallic OCR?
20.Talk me through HV safety.
21.Why do we use HV?
22.How would you isolate a piece of HV equipment for maintenance?
23.What maintenance have you done to bridge equipment? Discussed GMDSS
battery maintenance and RADAR maintenance.
24.Discussed electrical & general safety whilst working on bridge equipment.
25.What Ex equipment have you come across?
26.What does intrinsically safe mean?
27.You have been asked to take part in a fire drill, what BA checks would you
carry out?
28.What fixed fire detectors did you have on board?
29.How do you test these?
30.What fixed firefighting installation did you have on-board?
31.Explain operation of fixed firefighting installation?
Oral questions
Gave me an electrical diagram of a seawater cooling system.

Describe the components


What does it do

How does it work


What is the purpose of the fuses
What are the properties of a fuse
How big should the fuses be
Whats an ocr, how does it work, what setting should it have.
What protection does the motor have
Why does a ammeter powered from a step down transformer
What is a transformer
What faults could lead to a motor drawing excess current

Asked me about Frequency drives briefly.

What type of equipment would use frequency drives


Why use a frequency drive

What other types of speed control are there?

Asked me about electrical distribution on 1 of my ships

Asked to explaing the parts


Purpose of bustie breakers and operation parameters
Emergency generator, how it works, regulations etc
Asked to produce a switching plan for transformer maintenance.
What would you do next to continue with the maintenance
If the maintenance included an IR test what else would you need
Why would you need the sanction to test i.e why do you need to remove
the CEM
What equipment would be connected to the emergency switchboard
If you try to connect a generator to the board and it wont connect what
are the reasons

Battery Maintenance,

general battery maintenance questions


Battery fault finding

UPS

What is a ups
Whats the purpose
What type of equipment would be connected

Fire Systems

What type of sensors are there


Hows does the system work
How do you test the sensors
What would your duties as an ETO entail in a fire situation

Asked me about hazardous areas

What are hazardous areas


What type of equipment would use in these areas

Examiner- Mr Groark

Show passport
Testimonials
Confirm date of birth
Discharge book (examined the range of vessels and period in rank)
Q. What type of vessels are you currently sailing on?
A. Diesel electric LNG vessels.
Q. Please draw the electrical distribution system from your last ship.
Q. Are the bus ties between the two sides of the main 6.6Kv switchboard
normally kept open or closed?
A. Closed
Q. What about the bus tie between the two 440v switchboards, open or
closed?
A. Open
Q. Why?
Q. If you were chief engineer and your planned maintenance system spat
out a planned job on a main transformer during a passage from Singapore
to Cartagena what would you do?
Q. Would you carry out the job? Do you feel commercial pressure? Why?
Q. What information would you use to assist in making this decision?
Q. As chief engineer where would you prefer to carry out this job? Why?
Q. Explain how you would make one of the 6.6Kv - 440v transformers safe
to work on.
Q. How is the transformer earthed down?
Q. Who carries out the isolation and earthing procedure?
Q. What normal maintenance jobs would you perform on a transformer?
Q. What would happen if you tried to perform an insulation resistance test
on the transformer windings now? What reading would you get?

Q. What would you then need to do before an insulation resistance test


can be performed?
A. Sanction to test, remove earthing connections, Authorised person etc.
Q. (Examiner drew an AC waveform) Show me one full cycle.
Q. Why do you have harmonic filters? What is the likely effect of
harmonics on your systems?
Q. What is a thyristor?
Q. How does it work?
Q. How is the speed of the propulsion motors controlled?
Q. What critical equipment is there onboard your ship?
Q. Why is this equipment critical?
Q. What would you put into a shipboard energy efficiency management
plan?
Q. How often does your hull get inspected/ Cleaned?
Q. What is the main purpose of a underwater hull survey?
Q. What certificate would you look at for information on your hull
condition?
Q. What is the main difference in a tanker and a bulk carrier with regards
to the load line?
Q. What are the main points that you as an engineer would be interested
in during a load line survey?
Q. You walk onboard a ship for the first time as chief engineer and you see
a vent head for an engine sump with slack bolts, what do you do?
Q. What is the procedure that you would follow in your company if you
believed that the ship should not sail due to safety concerns.
Q. What term would be used for something that constitutes a failure of
the safety management system?

ETO Oral Exam Questions

Draw one electrical distribution diagram


Explain the diagram

Generators
Youve ran up a generator but it keeps falling off the main
switchboard what could be wrong? What are the basics
you would look for on the switchboard panel?
What are the circuit breaker protection trips for a
generator?
Is there actually such a thing as overvoltage? Explain it.
What is reverse power? What does it cause?
Your generator is running but theres no voltage, what
could have caused it and how would you fix it?
Where is the residual magnetism in a generator?
What windings would you connect the field flashing
battery to?
What are the diodes for in the excitation system? Explain
what a diode is and what it does. What is the mechanical
equivalent to a diode?
Would a problem with one diode affect the excitation
output?
What else could be wrong in a faulty excitation circuit?
What is an AVR? What does it do? What faults can occur in
an AVR circuit?
What is a synchroscope?
Two generators are on the board at 62Hz. How would you
reduce their frequency?
Motors
Methods of speed control for an AC motor.

What is a thyristor? What does it do? How does it work?


How does it change the speed of a motor?
Explain how a synchroconverter works.
Explain Pulse Width Modulation. Why is it rectified and
then inverted back to AC?
What are the problems with starting large motors?
How much is the starting surge current of a large motor?
How do you alleviate the problems of starting a large
motor?
Draw a star-delta or autotransformer power circuit.
What is the relationship between line voltages/phase
voltages, line currents/phase currents for star and delta?
Equations..
What if the star contactor is stuck in?
What if all three contactors are stuck in?
From a DOL starter power circuit, how you would configure
the motor to change direction? Draw it with the correct
components. (not just swapping two phases round)
You have a motor with a running current of 10A and a
starting current of 60A what rating of fuses does the
motor need?
What is the inverse time characteristic?

Transformers
What is a transformer?
A transformer requires planned maintenance while your
ship is at sea would you do the work? Why not or why?
Explain what a switching programme is and how you
would isolate a transformer.

Where do you apply earths when earthing down a


transformer? What equipment is used to apply earths?
Explain how you use an HV probe for proving a circuit
dead.
How would you IR test a transformer?

High Voltage
Why do we use high voltages on board ship?

Circuit Breakers
Whats the difference between LV and HV circuit breakers?
How does a vacuum circuit breaker operate?
Why do you have bus tie breakers?

Emergency Generators
If you lose mains power how does your emergency
generator start? (what actually takes place for it to start?)
Most common method used to start an emergency
generator?
How quickly must an emergency generator run up and be
connected to the board, according to regulations?
What is fed off the emergency switchboard?

Fire detection
What other fire detection components are there? (other
than smoke, heat, flame detectors)
Batteries

Typical specific gravity levels for a fully charged lead acid


battery?
Typical voltage levels of a fully charged lead acid battery?
Where else would you find batteries on your ship?
What equipment do they feed? At what voltages do they
feed the equipment you mentioned?
What is a UPS?
Why do you have UPSs?
Typical voltage output for a UPS?
Where do you find UPSs?
What Bridge equipment is fed by a UPS?

Bridge Equipment
How do you do an on-load test for GMDSS equipment? (2
ways.)
The VDR is in alarm whilst youre in port. What could be
wrong?
What equipment feeds into the VDR?
Should an AIS be switched off in port?
The ship is in port and the echo sounder is switched on but
nothing happens, what could be wrong? What would
happen if the echosounder worked whilst the ship was in
port?
How does an echosounder work?
Why else (other than power supply) would an echosounder
not work?
What other equipment has problems with seals failing and
consequently, water ingress?

Electrical Shore Supplies


Your ship needs to take an electrical shore supply what
information does the electrical company need?
Where would you typically find a shore connection point
on board a ship, outside of the main engine room?
How many cables from shore will be connected to your
shore connection board?
How can you check that the phases of the shore
connection cables are in the correct sequence so that your
large motors connected to the switchboard wont all run in
reverse?

Insulated Neutral and Earthed Systems


On a typical ship, not high voltage, are the electrical
systems earthed?
What would one fault on one phase of an insulated neutral
system cause to happen? Would you even know its there?
What would two faults on the same phase of an insulated
neutral system cause to happen? Would you know you had
two faults? What about the other phases?
What are the dangers of a short circuit across phases?
What does a generator NER do?

Earth Fault Tracing


How do you carry out earth fault tracing?
Do you have to care about which phase is red, yellow or
blue when earth fault tracing?
Refrigeration System

Name the electrical components in a refrigeration system.


What is a compressor?
What is inside a compressor?
If a compressor is switching on and off is it fair to think
the problem is the motor itself?
What else could be the problem?
What could be happening to the motor as the supply
keeps switching on and off? Will the fuses blow? Will the
contactor suffer? Will the OCR trip?
If the contactor is stuck closed, what could this cause?
Emergency Actions
Theres a fire in the galley what are your duties as an
ETO? What are you looking to isolate? What are you not
looking to isolate for as long as possible? Where would you
do these isolations?
What do you hope the galley staff have done prior to
evacuating the galley if there was a fire?
What do the emergency crash stops in the galley do?
In the adjacent areas of the galley in this case the crew
mess and a passenger restaurant, what else are you
looking to isolate in these areas?
Others
Low Location lighting AC supply or DC?
ETO MCA Orals question Summer 2014

Draw power Distribution and explain

generator running but no voltage list the possible problems

fixed fire fighting

battery checks

emergency generator checks, how much fuel does it have?

emergency distribution

UPS

Star delta draw and explain, what happens if stuck in star? how do we know its
switched over? why does starting in star reduce current

BA checks

addressable fire fighting systems

enclosed entry procedure

as what the purpose of the cyclo was

HV safety

GMDSS checks and any other bridge equipment I had worked on

How to clean up and oil spill what would i do? where does the oil go after the bilge?

shore connection, limitations and procedure

Go in, hand in your TRB and Workbook. Sit for 15-20mins and he will call you in.
1. Draw me your typical power distribution.
2. Explain it in general, why each component is where it is and what is it used for.

3. Have I ever worked on isolating transformers. Such as 440-440V.


4. Explain the operation and purpose of the Power Management System.

5. What types of thrusters were on my ship.


6. Testing and checks on Emergency Generator
7. What methods of starting the Emergency Generator are there.
8. How often do you test Emergency Generator.
9. What Services does an Emergency Generator provide.
10. What is a shore side connection.
11. Why is a shore connection used.
12. If shore personnel handed you the shore cables where would you connect them.

13. How would you ensure the shore connection is ok when you connect it.
14. UPS, what is it.
15. How does UPS Work.
16. What services use UPS systems.

17. How do you safely operate a Watertight Door.

18. Can the watertight doors be operated anywhere else.


19. Motor is running but trips out what could be problem.
20. Check OCR but still tripping.
21. Check contactor, still tripping.
22. Possibly overhaul motor to check bearings, IR test windings , still tripping.

23. Check LOAD on motor shaft.


24. How do you safely isolate a piece of equipment
25. What documentation needs to be completed for LV and HV Isolations

26. What differences are there from LV and HV isolation. Remember Sanction to Test
27. How do you enter an enclosed space, what needs to be in place.

28. How do you carry out BA Checks. Start to finish.


29. What fire fighting installations are onboard.
30. How do you operate them.
31. Can they be operated in certain spaces, or all at once. Separate.
32. What procedures are followed before release of CO2
33. What work have I done on navigation equipment
34. Any procedures to follow when working on equipment.

started off looking at the particulars of my last ships, then asked about boiler and

steering gear (rotary vane) then questions


1. steering gear - alarms, how would you know if it was single phasing (its the one motor

that doesnt have an ocr)


2. draw the distribution diagram and explain it
3. then discuss motor starting methods, how would you reduce load when starting an

engine room air compressor, well drain valve open so less mechanical load
4. emergency switchboard, lighting, solas regs
5. emergency generator tests
6. spoke about propulsion systems
7. spoke about hv motors such as bt, st, ac compressors - spoke about refrigeration
8. talked about shore connections
9. spoke about fire fighting fixed installations
10. spoke about co2 release
11. spoke about enclosed spaces.
12. ba set checks
13. working on hv equipment, eptw, stored energy
14. hv equipment isolation and sanction to test
15. risk assessment
16. generators - loss of voltage - avr and residual magnetism, field flash
17. Cant think of any more, but will let you know if I do

Distribution diagram

Hv switching, Isolation procedures entry to hazardous areas, procedures


Protection devices on generators and prime movers
Main propulsion, method of control, pwm etc
Auxiliary equipment
Emergency switchboard
Batteries, what they supply
Breaker maintenance
Fire fighting equipment
Fire system, co2 inergen hi fog
Bridge equipment and maintenance
Ba checks prior to use, duties during fire drills.

1. he drew a distribution system and then got me to talk about faults that caused a
blackout, restoration
2. Boiler, faults, checks and failure to start
3.emergency swbd, whats fed and why
4. fire fighting
6. HV - permit to work, saction to test
7. Variable speed drive - this threw up some discussion he believed that snychro
convertors operate by varying the voltage so we talked aroun that for a bit and he's
going to read up on it.
8. synchronising generators
9. nav lights and bridge equipment
10. batteries and specific gravity etc
11. Star delta - again we had a bit of a chat about the fact that input line currents would
be the same even if your getting it stuck in star.
12. cant think of much more.

1. Draw distribution from first ship


2. Talk about it. NER, harmonic filters, prop converters/tx's.
3. Why is HV a non insulated system
4. Why shouldn't you operate the fwd and aft er swbds closed if main bus tie on hv
board is closed.
5. Star delta starting, draw and explain operation
6. Why is delta running current lower than star
7. Synchro converters, talked loads about it, firing sequence, torque, smoothing.
8. Generators, AVR, why trimmers are there, how excitation works, field flashing.
9. HV isolation of converters/prop tx
10. Batteries, gmdss, storage etc...

11. Em generator starting


12. Synchronising gennys
13. Fire fighting, em. duties
14. Load sharing

15. Steering gear


More stuff too but I can't think. Each point we talked about in a bit of depth so more
questions but all above is main points to note from exam.

1,First thing was draw a ship distribution


2, Spoke about the distribution,
3, what are NER's for
4, Difference between HV earthh fault and LV earth faults,
5, Switch board protection,
6, Breaker protections
7, Syncroscopes and syncronising machinery,
8, AVR and Excitation (Field flashing, how long for)
9, Transitional Batts
10, Emergeny Genny start up methods
11, Emergency lighting and essential consumers
12, Engine Auxilarys
13, He then pulled out a A3 electrical drawing and asked me to explain how it worked on
start up, it was a fresh water pump DOL,it started on a pressure switch
14, Bridge equipment. VDR fault, self diagnostic test of equipment ( he liked that)
15, Earth faults in DC automation. (24V, will affect sensors)
16, Current transformers
17, What is a risk assesment
18, whats a permit to work
19, Lift entry safety precautions
20, scenario of a faulty motor in engine room which is high up. what you going to do...
(want to hear risk assesment and permits for working at height, isolation of motor, tag
out, lock out)
21, Lifting gear (chain blocks, SWL, Colour co ordination scheme, Testing of equipment
etc)
22, Low Location Lighting, where is it.
23, emergency exit signs, where they are powered from, how long they will light up for in
blackout, where are they on the ship

He then sent me out of the room as he was being examined by some other dude in the
room, they must have had a brief discussion about the questions he had asked me. I then

came back in the room after 2-3 mins and he asked about load sharing AGAIN,
24, If one genny is 600kw the other is 400kw what do we have to control to ensure they
share loads evenly
25, the bus frequency no has dropped to 58 Hz what will you do?
26, Breaker wont close on switch board, what coould be problem, ( RESET button on
breaker)
27, Your on a cargo ship and you have one lift for crew, the chief asks you to fix it but
you dont have a permit to work. what would you do?

SHORE CONNECTION PROCEDURE


1.Turn off and isolate HV DG sets/engines until there is one remaining on the HV board.
(Isolated so that PMS System doesn't turn another dg set on after you eventually knock
off the last one).
2. Turn on EDG
3. Turn off last remaining DG Set and isolate
4. Isolate 6K6/440 transformers (backfeed)
5. turn off all loads on main 440 swb... so that when shoreside does connect full load of
440 board isn't suddenly applied
6. Close shoreside connection
7. do sequential start sequence

RADAR MAINTENANCE:
Working at height PTW, talked about PPE, communication with deck officers not to
transmit on equipment as man is working aloft (warning signs on such equipment),
checking of magnetron current once new one installed (locking radar in one direction
while doing this).

ETO CoC

Feedback from candidates

Questions based on

1) Draw a typical ships electrical distribution systems (example your last


ship)
a) Explain all components, tie breaker etc why are they there.
b)

Earthing arrangements

c) Achieving 230v (generation)

d) Function of isolation transformers


2) Emergency generator (what is it connected to.. ?)
a) Daily Checks
b) Weekly checks
c) Interlocks, main circuit breakers, protection why is this necessary ?
3) Earthing, permt to work, sanction to test,
a) Motor start, tripping current, (.Impedance calculations)
b) 3 phase Star/Delta starter with control circuit
c) List/Discuss other types of motor starts - were these would be found
4) Transitional Power Requirements (ie transfer of Main Power to Emergency
Power)
5) Systems general description of Bridge, components, and redundancy
requirements in
emergencies
7)

Entry in to Hazardous environments, checks, permits

8) Oily water separator explanation.


9) General Electrical Checks
10)

Motor insulation tests.

Try to emphasise safety aspects in answers to questions


Reference COSWOP and specific rules pertaining to the vessels with which
you have experience and are using to illustrate your answers

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