chris collister Feb 11, 2019:

@ Hayley Why ask the client? Daryo is quite correct. You fill a graduated container/bottle/pipette/burette to a specified level, run the engine at a specified level for a specified time, note the new level, subtract from the first and voilà: fuel consumption!

Hayley Leva (asker) Feb 11, 2019:

Thanks Thanks to all for your contributions. To avoid both guessing and omission, I decided to query this with the client. If I hear back, I'll post a glossary entry.

Daryo Feb 4, 2019:

difference between guessing and applying real life knowledge:

mesure de la consommation gasoil par des biberons

"un biberon" is graduated - so you can know how much baby milk or some liquid food is in it.

to measure fuel consumption you need to measure a quantity of liquid (fuel), in parallel with some other parameter (distance, speed, elapsed time, rotation speed of the engine etc ...) - in order to do that you supply your engine with fuel from a graduated bottle that looks like "un biberon" (and for just a test you don't need much more fuel than that).

It's ONLY for testing - if the engine is already mounted, you disconnect the regular supply of fuel first, and reconnect when the test is done.

Hardly "wild guessing".

I'm sure that it's possible to find pictures/detailed description of this kind of set-up - doubting Thomases are welcome to exercise their Googling skills ...

chris collister Feb 4, 2019:

@ Phil I wouldn't recommend guessing, though... The sin of omission is less reprehensible than the sin of a wrong guess. Perhaps there are marine engineers out there who might shed some light?

philgoddard Feb 4, 2019:

I don't think you should leave it out.

chris collister Feb 4, 2019:

Obviously not a baby's bottle, but "drinking" is involved, to be sure. If this is a very large engine, then there may well be a distributed fuel supply system with several fuel pumps supplying individual cylinders or banks of cylinders. To play it safe, not much would be lost by referring simply to "fuel consumption" rather than guessing what a "biberon" might be in this very specific context.