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The piston assembly is the major source of tribological inefficiencies among the engine components and is responsible for about 50% of the total engine friction losses, making such a system the main target element for developing low-friction technologies. Being a reciprocating system, the piston assembly can operate in boundary, mixed and hydrodynamic lubrication regimes. Computer simulations were used to investigate the synergistic effect between low viscosity oils and cylinder bore finishes on friction reduction of passenger car internal combustion engines. First, the Reynolds equation and the Greenwood & Tripp model were used to investigating the hydrodynamic and asperity contact pressures in the top piston ring. The classical Reynolds works well for barrel-shaped profiles and relatively thick oil film thickness but has limitations for predicting the lubrication behavior of flat parallel surfaces, such as those of Oil Control Ring (OCR) outer lands.

In the present work, a system approach to the tribological optimization of passenger car engines is demonstrated. Experimental data and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the role of surface specifications, ring pack, and lubricant on the piston/bore tribology. The importance of in-design “pairing” of low-viscosity motor oils with the ring pack and the cylinder bore characteristics in order to achieve maximum reduction in GHG emissions and improvement in fuel economy without sacrificing the endurance is elucidated. Earlier motored friction data for two different gasoline engines - Ford Duratec and Mercedes Benz M133 - using motor oils of different viscosity grades are now rationalized using AVL EXCITE® piston/bore tribology simulations. The main difference between the engines was the cylinder bore surface: honed cast iron vs thermally sprayed, and the valve train type: direct-acting mechanical bucket (DAMB) vs roller finger follower (RFF).

The materials commonly employed in the automotive industry are various and depend on the specific application field. For what concern the internal combustion engines the choice is guided by the thermomechanical performance required, technological constraints and production costs. Actually, for high-performance engines, steel and aluminium are the most common materials selected for the piston and the cylinder liner manufacturing. This study analyses the effect of possible material choice on the interaction between piston and cylinder liner, via Finite Element analyses. A motorcycle engine is investigated considering two possible pistons: one (standard) made of aluminium and one made of steel. Similarly, two possible cylinder liners are considered, the original one made of aluminium and a different version made of steel obtained by simply thinning the aluminium component in order to obtain two structurally equivalent components.

This work investigates the development of a novel series hybrid architecture utilizing a single cylinder opposed piston engine. The opposed piston engine presents unique benefits in a hybrid architecture such as its lower heat transfer due to a favorable surface area to volume ratio and lack of a cylinder head, as well as the thermodynamic benefits of two stroke operation with uniflow scavenging. A particular focus of this effort is the work extraction efficiency of two design concepts. The first design concept utilizes a geartrain to couple the crankshafts of the engine in a conventional manner, providing a single power take-off for coupling to an electric motor/generator. In this design, the large inertia of the geartrain dampens the speed fluctuation of the single cylinder engine, reducing the peak torque required to for the electric machine. However, the friction losses caused by the geartrain limit the maximum work extraction efficiency.

Since a significant part of energy losses in the internal combustion engine comes from viscous dissipation, the trend has shifted toward low-viscosity oils from SAE 40 and 50 in the 1960s-1980s to current SAE 20 and lower viscosity grades. Use of low viscosity engine oils significantly reduces energy losses in the main bearing and piston/bore systems, while tribological stresses on the valvetrain - especially in flat-tappet cammed engines - may increase. This makes a strong argument for deploying new classes of friction modifiers and antiwear additives. However, development of a balanced formulation is not as straightforward as it appears, and numerous pitfalls may be encountered due to additive interactions. Another serious problem is that the definition of “fuel-economy engine oil” is rather vague, as it depends on choice of reference oil. Nowadays, the assessment of fuel economy is often based on the Sequence VIE or VIF tests using a 2012 3.6L GM V6 gasoline engine.

The combustion process in spark-ignition engines can vary considerably cycle by cycle, which may result in unstable engine operation. The phenomena amplify in natural gas (NG) spark-ignition (SI) engines due to the lower NG laminar flame speed compared to gasoline, and more so under lean burn conditions. The main goal of this study was to investigate the main sources and the characteristics of the cycle-by-cycle variation in heavy-duty compression ignition (CI) engines converted to NG SI operation. The experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder optically-accessible CI engine with a flat bowl-in piston that was converted to NG SI. The engine was operated at medium load under lean operating conditions, using pure methane as a natural gas surrogate. The CI to SI conversion was made through the addition of a low-pressure NG injector in the intake manifold and of a NG spark plug in place of the diesel injector.

To reproduce wall quenching phenomena using 3D-CFD, a wall quenching model was constructed based on the Peclet number. The model was further integrated with the flame propagation model. Combustion analysis showed that that a large amount of unburned hydrocarbons (UHCs) remained in the piston clevis and small gaps. Furthermore, the model was capable of predicting the increase in UHC emissions when there was a delay in the ignition time. The flame front cells were plotted on Peters' premixed turbulent combustion diagram to identify transitions in the combustion states. It was found that the flame surface transitioned from corrugated flamelets through thin reaction zones to wrinkled flamelets and further to laminar flamelets, which led to wall quenching. The turbulent Reynolds number (Re) decreased rapidly due to the increase in laminar flame speed and flame thickness and the decrease in turbulent intensity and turbulent scale.

Increasing combustion pressure, low viscosity oils, less oil supply and the increasing stress due to downsizing of internal combustion engines (ICE) lead to higher loads within the bearing. As the mechanical and tribological loads on the piston pin bearings have a direct impact on the service life and function of the overall engine system, it is necessary to develop a robust tribological design approach. Regarding the piston pin bearing of a diesel engine, this study aims to describe the effects of different parameters on a DLC-coated piston pin within the bearing. Therefore, an external engine part test rig, which applies various forces to the connecting rod and measures the torque on a driven pin, is used to carry out validation measurements. The special feature of the test bench is the way the piston is beared. For the first experiments, the piston crown is placed against a plate (plate-bearing); later, this plate-bearing is replaced by a hydrostatic bearing.

In a Passive suspension, a shock absorber generates damping force by pressurizing the oil flow between chambers. Typically, vehicle responds with suspension deflection, which significantly depends on damping forces and suspension velocity. Tuning dampers for various roads and steering input is an iterative balancing process. In any setting, damping force w.r.t velocity is tuned for optimum ride and handling performance. Practically, to achieve a balance between the two is a tedious task as the choices & arrangements of inner parts like piston, port, valve etc., which defines the forces set up [soft / hard] are almost infinite. The objective of this paper is to measure, objectify and evaluate the performance of two such optimum setting in various ride and handling events. A passenger car set up with an optimum soft & hard suspension damping force is studied for various ride and handling sub-attributes and their conflicts are examined in detail from a performance point of view:

One of the first tasks while designing pistons is to ensure the reliable engine operation with minimal friction losses. This is possible by ensuring the liquid friction in the piston-cylinder junction during the entire operating cycle. Therefore, it is important to assess the nature of friction in the piston-cylinder conjunction. This task can be broken down into a number of interrelated subtasks: determining the characteristics of the piston lateral movement, determining the piston deformations under thermal and mechanical loads, and calculating the hydrodynamic forces acting from the side of the oil layer in the conjunction. The use of software packages that solve these problems separately and their inclusion in the iterative process will lead to huge expenditures of computing time and is difficult to implement in carrying out design optimization problems.

Because of ever increasing demand for more fuel efficient engines with lower manufacturing cost, compact design and lower maintenance cost, OEM’s prefer three cylinder internal combustion engine over four cylinder engine for same capacity, though customer demands NVH characteristics of a three cylinder engines to be in line with four cylinder engine. Crank-train balancing plays most vital role in NVH aspects of three cylinder engines. A three cylinder engine crankshaft with phase angle of 120 degrees poses a challenge in balancing the crank train. In three-cylinder engines, total sum of unbalanced inertia forces occurring in each cylinder will be counterbalanced among each other. However, parts of inertia forces generated at No.1 and No. 3 cylinders will cause primary and secondary resultant moments about No. 2 cylinder. Conventional method of designing a dynamically balanced crank train is time consuming and leads to rework during manufacturing.

Numerous studies considering interaction between refrigerant and reed valve motion in positive displacement compressors have been cited in literature. CFD and FEA simulation tools have allowed modeling of fully coupled interaction of fluids and moving parts [1]. The present paper describes a simplified model of a multi-cylinder reciprocating piston compressor and estimation of pressure surge at high compressor speeds. The results show that the delayed discharge valve opening and closing causes surge in pressures due to formation of pressure waves. For the chosen geometry and operating conditions in the present paper, the characteristic travel time of such waves is much shorter (~ 0.2ms) as compared to longer response time of reed valves (> 1ms) owing to stiffness and exhibit delayed opening due to others factors too like stiction effect. These pressure surges may exceed the fatigue limit of reed valves and cause failures.

To evaluate the influence of FAME, which has poor oxidation stability, on engine oil performance, an engine test was conducted under large volumes of fuel dilution by post-injection. The test showed that detergent consumption and polymerization of FAME were accelerated in engine oil, causing a severe deterioration in piston cleanliness and sludge protection performance of engine oil.

Phenolic brake pistons show excellent performance for weight saving, protection against vapor lock, noise reduction, no rust, and less seal scratch. Phenolic brake pistons have been successfully used since 1974. However there has been a complex system phenomenon related with the brake pedal feel. Our recent study focused on the tribology of phenolic brake piston and its correlation to brake pedal feel. Several surface designs of phenolic brake pistons were created and evaluated using modified JASO C448 bench test station. Our testing found the friction force between a phenolic brake piston and the piston seal differs from that of a steel brake piston. Furthermore, we discovered the friction forces on a phenolic piston could be favorably altered by the surface design of the piston. In this paper, we will propose how to improve brake pedal feel using a phenolic brake piston through designing the surface condition of the brake piston.

The single piece aluminium alloy piston remains the dominant and preferred design offering for highly loaded diesel engines. Piston manufacturers have progressively developed aluminium alloys, machining capability, and design geometries to cope with increasing thermal and mechanical loading. In conjunction with these developments, the methodology used to analyse the pistons has also improved as software and digital computers have advanced. This advancement has permitted larger more detailed models and more sophisticated simulation of the material behaviour, in response to the loading and contact conditions applied to pistons. Transient finite element analysis was first applied to diesel pistons in the late 1970's using a linear elastic approach, coupled with a life assessment based on limited low cycle fatigue data. This methodology gave valuable insights into the mechanism of piston failures, particularly at the combustion bowl rim of diesel pistons.

The objective of the research is to develop a lightweight yet stiff, 2 piston fixed brake caliper which can be used in formula student race car. To make a race car, its components need to be lighter. To stop a car with minimum stopping distance, it needs to have a sophisticated braking system with well-designed components. The designing of the caliper is carried out on the Altair Inspire software. The topology optimisation algorithm is used to minimise the weight of the caliper without compromising the stiffness. The structural analysis is also carried out on the Altair Inspire. The caliper is also tested for fatigue failure using Ansys.

For upgrading/new engine development, the piston and cylinder head are the most exposed members due to amplified mechanical and thermal loadings. Mechanical loading is basically due to the combustion gas pressure in the combustion chamber and its scale can be judged in terms of peak cylinder pressure. Thermal loading is due to temperature by heat flux acting on the piston surface, cylinder liner and the cylinder head. The importance of the various loads applied on the head and cylinder block in operation was assessed and a method of predicting their influence on the structural integrity of the components described by doing actual test on engine test bench. Therefore, it’s very important to have thermal survey of the engine. The engine thermal survey test was primarily developed to measure the temperature in the head of the engine to determine if the temperatures that are measured are within the design guidelines for appropriate engine operation.

Automotive Air Conditioning is the process of removing the heat and moisture from the interior of an occupied space to improve comfort of occupants. A condenser is a device or unit used to condense refrigerant from its gaseous to its liquid state, by cooling it. In so doing, the latent heat is given up by the substance and transferred to the surrounding environment. It is made of Aluminum Alloy Material and subjected to very high internal stresses due to refrigerant pressure, thermal / inertia and dynamic load. In order to evaluate the structural integrity of the condenser assembly under these loading conditions, operating frequency should be far away from the resonance frequency and component design should be robust to sustain external excitation load coming from the engine & road. The above design evaluation criteria is also applicable for piston of AC’s reciprocating compressor.

The forged connecting rod and pin experience a large amount of stresses due to cyclic load for a long period of time induced by the reciprocating movement of the piston. The proposed work focused to produce lightweight composites with high strength using waste flyash and simple manufacturing process. In this context, the proposed experimental work was formulated to develop aluminium alloy hybrid metal matrix composite of A356 alloy with silicon carbide and flyash processed through stir cum squeeze casting process under optimal parametric condition. The samples were subjected to varying flyash content of 0, 5, 10wt.% and SiC of 5wt.% kept constant. Responses like metallography, hardness, impact strength, flexural strength, fatigue strength were observed for the manufactured hybrid composites. There was a significant improvement in the properties with a higher weight percentage addition of 10wt.% flyash and 5wt.% SiC with A356 hybrid composites.

Piston is the most imperative part of an automotive engine in which it exchanges drive due to expanding gas in the cylinder to the crankshaft through the piston rod. During the combustion of fuel charge inside the ignition chamber, high pressure and temperature are developed and the piston is imperiled to high mechanical and thermal stresses. The main objective of the proposed work is to analyse the stress distributions and thermal behaviour of uncoated A356 with 5wt% SiC and 10wt% Fly Ash HMMC piston crown and Plasma sprayed Yttrium Stabilized Zirconia (Y-PSZ) coated A356 with 5wt% SiC and 10wt% Fly Ash HMMC piston crown. A356 with 5wt% SiC and 10wt% Fly Ash HMMC were fabricated via squeeze casting to improve the performance of a petrol engine. A structural model of an HMMC piston crown was made using CREO software and structural and thermal analysis was done using ANSYS. Further coupled field analysis is done to find the stress and temperature distribution on the piston.