Thermal analysis of Piston

in CI Engine
 Abstract:
The piston is a component of the internal combustion engine. The main
function of the piston is to transform the pressure generated by the burning
air-fuel mixture into force, acting on the crankshaft

In IC engine, Piston is one of the most important and complex part. With
increasing power and performance of engine, higher thermal load and the
thermal stresses are acting on piston, thereby, decreasing its life time. So It is
necessary to maintain Piston in good condition in order to maintain the proper
functioning of the engine. Piston mainly fails due to thermal Conditions. So Its is
essential to evaluate the piston with different crown shapes and find the thermal
and structural performance.

In this paper 4 different types of piston is developed using CATIA –V5 a powerful
3D Modelling tool and structural and thermal analysis will be done by ANSYS
using different materials to find out the temperature and thermal stress
distribution.
 INTRODUCTION

Piston is one of the mechanical component which was invented by German scientist
Nicholas August Otto in year 1866.
A piston is a component of reciprocating IC-engines. It is the moving component that is
contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. The purpose of the piston
is to provide a means of conveying the expansion of gases to the crankshaft via
connecting rod, The piston acts as a movable end of the combustion chamber Piston is
essentially a cylindrical plug that moves up & down in the cylinder It is equipped with
piston rings to provide a good seal between the cylinder wall.

Functions of Piston
 
To reciprocate in the cylinder as a gas tight plug causing suction, Compression, expansion,
and exhaust strokes.
To receive the thrust generated by the explosion of the gas in the cylinder
And transmit it to the connecting rod.
To form a guide and bearing to the small end of the connecting rod and to take the side
thrust due to obliquity of the rod.
 Factors Considered For Proper Functioning Of Piston
The piston should have enormous strength and heat resistance properties to
withstand gas pressure and inertia forces. They should have minimum weight to
minimize the inertia forces.
 
The material of the piston should have good and quick dissipation of heat from the
crown to the rings and bearing area to the cylinder walls. It should form an effective
gas and oil seal.
 
Material of the piston must possess good wearing qualities, so that the piston is able
to maintain sufficient surface-hardness unto the operating temperatures.
 
Piston should have rigid construction to withstand thermal, mechanical distortion and
sufficient area to prevent undue wear. It has even expansion under thermal loads so
should be free as possible from discontinuities.
PARTS OF PISTON
Piston Head or Crown
The piston head or crown is designed keeping in view the following two main
considerations, i.e.
•It should have adequate strength to withstand the straining action due to pressure of
explosion inside the engine cylinder, and
•It should dissipate the heat of combustion to the cylinder walls as quickly as possible.
On the basis of first consideration of straining action, the thickness of the piston head
is determined by treating it as a flat circular plate of uniform thickness, fixed at the
outer edges and subjected to a uniformly distributed load due to the gas pressure over
the entire Cross-section.

Piston Rings
 
The piston rings are used to impart the necessary radial pressure to maintain the seal
between the piston and the cylinder bore. These are usually made of grey cast iron or
alloy cast iron because of their good wearing properties and also they retain spring
characteristics even at high temperatures.
 
The piston rings are of the following two types:
• Compression rings or pressure rings, and
• Oil control rings or oil scraper.
The compression rings or pressure rings are inserted in the grooves at the top
portion of the piston and may be three to seven in number. These rings also
transfer heat from the piston to the cylinder liner and absorb some part of the
piston fluctuation due to the side thrust. The oil control rings or oil scrapers
are provided below the compression rings. These rings provide proper
lubrication to the liner by allowing sufficient oil to move up during upward
stroke and at the same time scrap the lubricating oil from the surface of the
liner in order to minimize the flow of the oil to the combustion chamber.
The compression rings are usually made of rectangular cross-section and the
diameter of the ring is slightly larger than the cylinder bore. A part of the ring
is cut- off in order to permit it to go into the cylinder against the liner wall. The
gap between the ends should be sufficiently large when the ring is put cold so
that even at the highest temperature, the ends do not touch each other when
the ring expands, otherwise there might be buckling of the ring.
Piston Skirt
The portion of the piston below the ring section is known as piston skirt. In acts
as a bearing for the side thrust of the connecting rod. The length of the piston
skirt should be such that the bearing pressure on the piston barrel due to the
side thrust does not exceed0.25 N/mm2 of the projected area for low speed
engines and 0.5 N/mm2 for high speed engines. It may be noted that the
maximum thrust will be during the expansion stroke. The side thrust (R) on the
cylinder liner is usually taken as 1/10 of the maximum gas load on the piston.

Piston Pin
 
The piston pin (also called gudgeon pin or wrist pin) is used to connect the
piston and the connecting rod. It is usually made hollow and tapered on the
inside, the smallest inside diameter being at the centre of the pin. The piston pin
passes through the bosses provided on the inside of the piston skirt and the
bush of the small end of the connecting rod. The Centre of piston pin should be
0.02 D to 0.04 D above the centre of the skirt, in order to off-set the turning
effect of the friction and to obtain uniform distribution of pressure between the
piston and the cylinder liner. The material used for the piston pin is usually case
hardened steel alloy containing nickel, chromium, molybdenum or vanadium
having tensile strength from 710 MPa to 910 MPa.
Major Force Acting over Piston

•Due to explosion of fuel gases

•Due to compression of fuel gases
•Side wall friction and forces
•Thermal load
•Inertia force due to high frequency of reciprocation of piston
•Friction and forces at crank pin hole
Piston Application or uses:
The main application of the Piston is:
• Reduced inertia also improves the mechanical efficiency of the engine.
• It compresses the fluid inside the cylinder hence increases the pressure and
temperature of the fluid inside the cylinder.
• It also provides the direction.
Piston Advantages:
The main advantages of the Piston are:
•Mechanical simplicity
•Flexibility and reliability
•Power to weight ratio
•Multi-fuel capability
•Low turbine operating temperature
•Less vibration and noise
•Less maintenance
•Easy to start the piston
•Highly suitable for waste heat recovery
•Give a high degree of maneuverability
•Less manufacturing cost
•Low NOx emissions
•It offers the HCCI combustion process
•Internally balanced
•Modularity
Piston Disadvantages:
The main disadvantages of the Piston are:

•Poor fuel economy

•Stability of fuel supply
•Poor part load efficiency
•High combustion rate
•Reduction gearing is require
 OBJECTIVES

There three objectives for this dissertation which is focus on

the piston for IC engine based on the finite element analysis.
The objectives are:
•To design 4 Different 3D models of piston for IC engine using Catia
V5.
•To investigate the maximum temperature distribution during
combustion using Steady state thermal analysis in Ansys.
•To investigate the maximum Thermal stress developed due to rise
in temperature and pressure using structural linear analysis using
Ansys.
 LITERATURE SURVEY

•S. Srikanth Reddy, Dr. B. Sudheer Prem Kumar Did Thermal Analysis and
Optimization of I.C.Engine Piston Using Finite Element Method
In this study, firstly, thermal analyses are investigated on a conventional
(uncoated) diesel piston, made of aluminium silicon alloy for design 1 and design
2 parameters. Secondly, thermal analyses are performed on piston, coated with
Zirconium material by means of using a commercial code, namely ANSYS.
The effects of coating on the thermal behaviours of the pistons are investigated.
The finite element analysis is performed by using computer aided design software.
The main objective is to investigate and analyze the thermal stress distribution of
piston at the real engine condition during combustion process.
Finally they concluded that Piston skirt may appear deformation at work, which
usually causes crack on the upper end of piston head. Due to the deformation, the
greatest stress concentration is caused on the upper end of piston, the situation
becomes more serious when the stiffness of the piston is not enough, and the
crack generally appeared at the point A which may gradually extend and even
cause splitting along the piston vertical.
•G.V.N. Kaushik did “Thermal and Static Structural Analysis
on Piston”
In this paper 3D model of piston is developed, structural and thermal analysis is
done by ANSYS using 5 different materials to find out the temperature and
thermal stress distribution, theoretically finding the total heat flux and compare
with the practical values of different Piston Materials used.
Finally they conclude that 42CrMo, Al-Si-C-12 undergo least deformation under
thermal loads and under mechanical loads Al-Si, Al-Si-C-12 undergo least
deformation. In case of Both Mechanical and Thermal loads Al-Si-C-12
undergoes the least deformation. This is mainly because while 42CrMo can
withstand high temperatures but cannot withstand high mechanical loads and in
case of Al-Si, it can withstand mechanical loads but cannot withstand high
temperatures like 42CrMo. In case of Al-Si-C-12, it can withstand both
mechanical and thermal loads. Hence Al-SI-C-12 undergoes least deformation
when both mechanical and thermal loads are applied. In conclusion while
designing a piston 42CrMo must be used to make the piston top land because it is
the surface of piston that directly comes in contact with combustion of fuel and
high temperatures and Al-Si-C-12 must be used for piston skirt and rest of the
piston.
•K.S.Mahajan and S.H.Deshmukh did “Structural and Thermal
Analysis of Piston”

The objective of the present work is to focus on the structural analysis of ceramic
coated piston, working under thermal and mechanical loads. Thermal analysis
was carried out on uncoated and ceramic coated piston to verify the temperature
changes at the ceramic coated regions using Hypermesh and Ansys. The study of
thermal stresses generated due to temperature differences at different materials
junctions used in coating was analyzed. The stresses due to the mechanical loads
were studied to finally determine the structural behavior of the partially ceramic
coated pistons.
Finally they concluded the Thermal Stress Distribution is a function of coating
thickness. With increase in thickness, the maximum temperature increases on
piston crown. The von-Mises stress decreases with the increase in the coating
thickness on the surface of the piston.
•A.R. Bhagat, Y. M. Jibhakate & Kedar Chimote did “Thermal
Analysis and Optimization of I.C. Engine Piston Using Finite
Element Method”
This paper describes the stress distribution of the seizure on piston four stroke
engine by using FEA. The main objectives is to investigate and analyze the
thermal stress distribution of piston at the real engine condition during
combustion process. The optimization is carried out to reduce the stress
concentration on the upper end of the piston. With using computer aided design
(CAD), Pro/ENGINEER software the structural model of a piston will be
developed. Furthermore, the finite element analysis performed with using
software ANSYS. Finally they concluded that the stress distribution on the
pistonmainly depends on the deformation of piston. Therefore, in order to reduce
the stress concentration, the piston crown should have enough stiffness to reduce
the deformation.
•Preeti Kumari, Anamika & Dr.H.C.Thakur did
“Thermal Analysis ofPiston of IC engine”

In this paper thermal stress distribution is shown for the simple piston and reduced
skirt length piston by changing the geometry of the piston and it is suggested that
which piston is better for same thermal load. Steady state thermal analysis of the
Piston have been done in ANSYS 14.5. Finally they concluded,it can be
demonstrated from the above graphical data and figures that reduced skirt length
piston temperature reduced by 10-20’ as compared to simple piston while
boundary conditions are same .Similarly total heat flux variation also reduced in
case of reduced skirt length piston as compare to simple piston. Piston failure
occurs because of thermo-mechanical overload by insufficient intercooling
thermo-mechanical overload by over fuelling
 Research gap
Most of the papers discussed about piston materials and their
thermal performance only . They didn’t consider the structural
performance. Temperature differences between the Engine Head
and the piston cylinder have been a major role in inducing
thermal stresses and hence play a vital role in predicting the life
of an IC Engine.
In this paper we focussed on thermal and structural evaluation of
different piston heads.
 Proposed methodology
Create a 3D CAD model of the Piston for the specifications available.

Export the solidmodel into ANSYS Workbench and edit the model in Design
modeler environment if it is necessary

Create FEA Model and Apply the loads and BCs of the Piston model and run
the thermal analysis.

Study the thermal distribution across the IC Piston due to the thermal loads
and Heat Transfer the co-efficient.

Convert the thermal model to structural model and apply the

structural/thermal loads and BCs.

Carryout the structural analysis for this model and tabulate the
results.
 Proposed methodology
Do the Same procedure for remaining models

Compare the stresses between 4 models and observe the

differences.
 Expected outcomes
Thermal and structural analysis will be carried out for 4 different
piston heads. During analysis we can predict where maximum stress
concentration is occur also when the stiffness of the piston is not enough
the crack generally appeared that point. which may gradually extend and
even cause splitting along the piston vertical
The stress distribution on the piston mainly depends on the deformation
of piston. Therefore, in order to reduce the stress concentration, the
piston crown should have enough stiffness to reduce the deformation.
THANKS