1405

Finite element modelling of piston-ring dynamics and

blow-by estimation in a four-cylinder diesel engine
S N Kurbet and R Krishna Kumar*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
The manuscript was received on 26 September 2005 and was accepted after revision for publication on 26 July 2007.
DOI: 10.1243/09544070JAUTO177

Abstract: This paper presents the results of the simulation of piston-ring behaviour in a
four-cylinder diesel internal combustion engine, using explicit nite element analysis. The
nite element model consists of piston, piston rings, liners, connecting rods, and a crankshaft.
The gas pressure and temperature are taken into account for the simulation. The mass ow is
solved by using the explicit nite dierence scheme. The ring geometry, its assembly load, and
its mechanical and thermal properties are properly accounted for in the simulation. The ring
dynamics are greatly inuenced by the piston secondary motions that depend upon the piston
geometry, piston pin oset, its centre-of-gravity location, and pistonliner clearance. The ring
motions in the axial and radial directions are monitored; various gap areas are calculated to
estimate the blow-by and compared with the experimental results. The mass owrate obtained
from the model agrees with the experimental values. The information obtained from the
analysis serves as an input for piston and ring design and their development.
Keywords: internal combustion engine, piston ring dynamics, nite element modelling,
blow-by

1 INTRODUCTION
Piston rings are important components in internal
combustion (IC) engines. Their prime function is to
seal dynamically the gap between the moving piston
and the cylinder liner surface to prevent the escape of
the combustion gases from the combustion chamber
into the crankcase. The piston rings also control the
leakage of oil from the crankcase to the combustion
chamber. The formation of the elastohydrodynamic
oil lms at the interfaces between the liner and the
piston skirt and between the liner and the ring is
encouraged during the operation of the IC engine.
These reduce the engine friction and hence wear.
Studies of hydrodynamic lubrication, blow-by, contact between the ring and the liner, and the piston
secondary motion are important for performance
evaluation and design of piston and piston rings.
A number of studies on ring dynamics and gas ow
are found in the literature. In their work on the
* Corresponding author: Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Sardar Patel Road,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600 036, India. email: rkkumar@iitm.ac.in

JAUTO177 IMechE 2007

inuence of ring twist on ringliner lubrication,

Ruddy et al. [1, 2] addressed the importance of the
location of the contact point between the rings and
their grooves. They found that ring twist and possible
ring utter may occur if the ring comes into contact
with the groove at the outside edge. However, in their
work, gas ow was not included and the reaction force
in the groove was calculated by assuming a quasisteady axial ring motion. Namazian and Heywood [3]
developed a ring dynamics and gas ow model
considering the gas ow through the ring grooves.
Ring twist, however, was neglected in their work.
Keribar et al. [4] developed an integrated ring pack
model, using the concept of ow through an orice.
A study of the literature shows that the complete
dynamics of the engine with a three-dimensional
model has not been carried out taking into consideration deformation of the piston ring to estimate oil
consumption and blow-by. It is a well-known fact
that the axial, radial and twist motions of the ring
are important in the performance of the IC engine.
The piston ring is a free deformable body placed in
the piston groove and is always in contact with the
cylinder liner owing to the assembly load. The ring
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S N Kurbet and R Krishna Kumar

dynamics are complex and depend on the piston

motion, which in turn is aected by the dynamics of
the moving parts, as well as the gas pressure, preload,
or the assembly load, the geometry aecting the
deformability, friction, and so on. Besides the primary oscillatory motion, the piston has a secondary
motion. This is due to the eccentric position of the
piston pin in the piston assembly and the gap
between the piston and the cylinder liner, resulting
in piston slap.
The eect of piston secondary motion in engine
tribology and oil consumption has been explained
in references [5] and [6]. Richardson [7] studied
the eect of second ring static twist on engine oil
consumption and blow-by, but he considered only
the axial motion of the rings. The eects of piston
motion on ring dynamics have been investigated in
reference [8].
The interaction of the piston with the rings and
liner aects the blow-by and lubricating oil consumption in each stroke of the cycle of operation. A
detailed multi-body dynamic analysis using a nonlinear explicit nite element analysis scheme [9]
has been undertaken in this work. Blow-by has been
estimated and compared with the results of the
experiments

2 MODEL DESCRIPTION
This study is based on a detailed multi-body nonlinear dynamic model of a four-cylinder IC engine [8].
The engine details are given in Table 1. Figure 1(a)
shows the nite element model developed for a
complete four-cylinder engine. The piston and ring
pack used in each of the cylinders is shown in
Fig. 1(b). The model consists of a crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, piston rings, and liners and is shown
in Fig. 1(c). The nite element model assumes the
crankshaft, ring, and liner to be deformable bodies,
and the piston to be a rigid body. The deformation

of the piston, when compared with the ring, is

usually small and hence is considered to be rigid.
The crankshaft and connecting rod are modelled
using beam-type elements. The piston ring and liner
are modelled using hexahedral elements. Four-noded
three-dimensional rigid surface elements used for the
piston are given a reference node at the centre of
gravity (CG) of the piston. The contact between the
piston and the liner, between the piston and the ring,
between the ring and the liner, and for self-contact
in the ring are all modelled using Coulombs law with
the coecients of friction being 0.03, 0.12, 0.06, and
0.1 respectively [10]. The contacting surface of the
piston is dened as the master surface in the piston
liner and pistonring pairs, and the liner as the
master surface in the ringliner pair. The assembly
loads specied in the rings are 0.18 MPa, 0.22 MPa,
and 0.36 MPa in the top, second, and the oil rings
respectively and are applied as radial loads. They are
experimentally measured. The crank pin and the big
end of the connecting rod are linked by multi-point
constraints (MPCs). In each of the cylinders a node
is placed at the piston pin position and is connected
to the CG of the piston with a sti beam element.
This node and the node at the small end of connecting rod are linked by a pin-type MPC. A schematic
illustration of the model is shown in Fig. 1(c). The
nodes at the outer periphery of the cylinder liners
are restrained in three translational directions. The
rotational degrees of freedom of the reference node
of the piston and that of the connecting rod are
restrained about the engine axis, and the axis perpendicular to the piston pin. These mimic the
physical constraints of the engine. The crankshaft is
rotated about the bearing node with 4500 r/min with
one degree of freedom about its axis of rotation. The
model has a total of 22 236 elements and 35 509
nodes. The pistonliner clearance in this case varies
from 23 to 225 mm from the skirt to the top land of
the piston. The piston pin oset is 0.6 mm towards
the minor thrust side. The proles of the piston ring,

Table 1 Engine details

Engine
Bore, stroke
Distance between
Distance between
Axial width
Top ring
Second ring
Oil ring
Distance between
Distance between
Maximum torque
Test condition

top ring and second ring

second ring and oil ring

piston crown and liner

piston skirt and liner

Tata 483DL compression ignition engine four-cylinder, water cooled (indirect injection)
83.0 mm, 90.0 mm
7.00 mm
3.00 mm
1.99 mm
2.00 mm
2.99 mm
0.225 mm
0.023 mm
12.0 m kg at 2500 r/min
Full load at 4500 r/min

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Finite element modelling of piston-ring dynamics

1407

Fig. 1 Finite element model of the four-cylinder IC engine

etc., are as per the design and include exact geometric shape. The oil rings have a simple rectangular
cross-section. The assumption made in these models
is that, except for the third and fourth cylinders, the
piston and rings in other cylinders have only a
lumped mass. This assumption is made to reduce
the computation time and yet to retain the essential
dynamics. The central processing unit time taken is
about 80 h to run the analysis for four complete
cycles of the engine on an HP-UX visualize work
station. The model enables the study of ring motions,
inside the groove and ring end gap, and also piston
secondary motions during the cycle of operation.
Figure 2 shows the nite element model of the top
ring. Points a, b, c, and d lie at four sections on the
circumference of the top and second rings; points p
and q lie at the gap end of the rings and are used to
describe the ring motions. The specied end gaps for
the top and second ring are 0.3 mm and 0.4 mm
JAUTO177 IMechE 2007

respectively. The top-ring end gap location is as

shown in Fig. 2 and the second-ring end gap location
is on the opposite side to the top ring. The solid and
nite element models are developed by SDRC I-DEAS
software [11].

2.1 Boundary conditions

The rings are assembled in the cylinder with specied
assembly loads. The top and the second compression
rings in all the cylinders are specied to be at temperatures of 200 C and 150 C respectively. The
temperatures in regions 1 and 2 are assumed to be
200 C and in regions 3 and 4 to be 150 C. The various
faces of the rings are acted upon by pressures that
are calculated on the basis of cylinder pressure versus
crank angle data obtained from the experiment,
which is explained later.
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S N Kurbet and R Krishna Kumar

combustion chamber while the pressure in region 5

is assumed to be at the crankcase pressure of 1 atm.
The gas pressures in regions 2 to 4 are modelled with
the ring positions derived from the results of nite
element simulation. Gas ows via the ring end gap
and the clearance between the rings and piston-ring
grooves are included in the model [3, 1214].

3 HEADING
3.1 Gas ow through a ring gap [12]
Results of isentropic orice ow are used to estimate
the gas ow through the ring end gaps between
adjacent piston land regions as given by
m

Fig. 2 Finite element model of the top ring

C A P
= D gap U f
m
gap
RT
U

A B
A B

(1)

P 2
D
C =0.850.25
D
P
U

2.2 Model formulation

As shown in the Figs 3(a) and (b), regions 1 to 5 are
used to denote the dierent cavity regions. Since the
sealing eect due to the oil ring is generally negligible, this ring pack is represented as a two-ring twoland passage system. The gas pressure within a
region is uniform. Gas pressure in region 1 (top land)
is assumed to be the same as the pressure in the

c+1/[2(c1)]
2
f =c1/2
m
c+1

(2)

if

A B

c/(c1)
2
P
D
P
c+1
U
(3)

It may be noted that, in this work, the change in the

ow coecient is taken into account to calculate the
mass ow, through the gap [12].

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of the piston ring and groove

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Finite element modelling of piston-ring dynamics

3.2 Gas ow through the clearance between a

ring and its groove [1214]
When the clearance between a ring and its groove is
greater than the given oil lm thickness, gas passes
through the ring groove. The gas ow is approximated
to be laminar, as the Reynolds number (much less
than 1000) is small [12]. Using the standard procedure
in deriving Reynolds equation, the mass owrate per
unit length along the radial direction from region s
to region n [13, 14] is obtained (see Fig. 3(b)) as

1409

V
3 (P
P )
3,n
pBRT 3,(n+1)
3
h2
C A P f
13,n
D top 1 m +
=Dt
(P2 P2 )
3,n
24W mRT 2,n
RT
r1
1
1
h2
C A P f
21,n

(P2 P2 ) D sec 3 m
4,n
24W mRT 3,n
RT
r2
3
3

(10)

V
dP
2
2 =m
m

12
23
pBRT dt
2

(5)

dP
V
3 =m
3
+m
m
m

13
23
34
35
pBRT dt
3

(6)

V
dP
4
4 =m
m

34
45
pBRT dt
4

(7)

V
4 (P
P )
4,n
pBRT 4,(n+1)
4
h2
21,n
=Dt
(P2 P2 )
4,n
24W mRT 3,n
r2
3
h2
23
(11)

(P2 P2 )
5,n
24W mRT 4,n
r2
4
The various land pressures P to P are calculated
2
4
using the equations (1), (6), (9), and (10). The set
of mass ow equations given by equations (9) to
(11) together with equations (1) and (6) are solved
sequentially with the nite element scheme.
The procedure is iterative in nature. Initially the
combustion pressure (the peak pressure is 7.2 MPa)
alone is assumed to act on the piston and the top
face of the top ring, and the nite element analysis
is carried out. The end gap and side clearance are
extracted from the result and the pressures acting in
dierent regions (such as P , P , and P ) are calculated
2 3
4
using the mass balance equations (9) to (11). The
initial values of these pressures are assumed to be
1 atm. i.e. equal to the crank case pressure. These
results are used again to run the explicit nite
element analysis. The steps are repeated until the
maximum change in P , P , etc., is less than 5 per
2 3
cent. Three iterations are required for convergence.

V
dP
5
5 =m
+m
m
m

35
45
56
57
pBRT dt
5

(8)

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

m
h2
1

=
(P2 P2 )
n
A 24W m RT s
r gas

(4)

where T is the temperature in the region assumed

to be 150 C, and the gas viscosity is obtained by
using m =3.3E0.7T 0.7 Pa s, W (=2.87103 m)
gas
r
is the ring width in the groove (Fig. 3(b)) and A is the
area normal to the ow. P stands for the pressure in
s
regions 2 and 4, and P the pressure for regions 3
n
and 5 (Fig. 3(b)). A is the area normal to the ow.

3.3 Governing equations

Based on mass conservation, equations are formulated
for P , P , P , and P as [3, 11, 12]
2 3 4
5

The above governing equations are solved using an

explicit procedure. These equations then reduce to a
set of algebraic equations
V
2 (P
P )
2,n
pBRT 2,(n+1)
2
h2
12,n
=Dt
(P2 P2 )
2,n
24W mRT 1,n
r1
1
h2
13,n

(P2 P2 )
3,n
24W mRT 2,n
r1
1

JAUTO177 IMechE 2007

(9)

4.1 The blow-by estimation in the third cylinder

of the engine
The eect of piston secondary motions on the rings
has been explained in detail in previous papers
[8, 15]. It has been found that the piston secondary
motion plays a very important role in the piston ring
dynamics. Figure 4 shows the piston tilt and side
motion in the third cylinder of the engine for one
complete engine cycle (two rotations of the crank).
The data for the tilt and side motion of the piston
are labelled tilt and side respectively. The piston seems
to tilt (change in direction) at the top dead centre
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S N Kurbet and R Krishna Kumar

Fig. 4 Piston tilt and side motion in the third cylinder

(FTDC, ring top dead centre)

Fig. 6 Land pressure in the third cylinder (FTDC, ring

top dead centre)

(TDC) and bottom dead centre (BDC) as was observed

in other experimental studies [1619]. As is usually
the case with explicit nite elements, the results are
ltered with low-pass lters. The variations in the
end gap size of the top ring and the second ring in
the third cylinder are shown in Fig. 5. The data for
the top ring and second ring are labelled top and sec
respectively. The end gap is not a constant and seems
to vary from 3.2104 to 3.7104 for the second
ring. Logically this has a major eect on the pressure
distribution and the mass owrate, as shown later.
The pressure acting at the piston land and groove is
given in Fig. 6. The pressures P , P , and P are
3
4
5
obtained by solving the coupled equations (9) to (11).
As can be seen from Fig. 6, the inter-ring chamber
pressure peaks are much lower, compared with
the combustion chamber pressure peak. The peaks
also shift to larger crank angle positions [20]. This
obviously arises because the ring end gap area, which
is considered to be an orice, plays the role of a
restrictor, which lowers the pressure intensity and
delays the pressure response in the following chamber.
The rapid combustion chamber pressure drop at
the later stage of the power stroke (after 540), its

continuous decrease in the exhaust stroke, and its

low value throughout the induction and early compression stroke processes lead to a situation where
the pressures in the inter-ring chambers can become
greater than the combustion chamber pressure for a
certain range of crank angles. Thus, reversed gas ow
is entirely possible in the piston ring pack and is
taken into account in this work. This has been
observed in previously published work [3, 12, 15, 20]
and is demonstrated clearly in the current simulation.
Figure 7 shows the lift of the top and second
compression rings. These are the average value of
the lift taken at the four points a, b, c, and d, shown
in Fig. 2. The engine is run for one complete rotation
without gas pressure for it to pick up speed. The
results shown here are taken from the subsequent
rotation where the gas pressure and temperature are
included. During the suction stroke, the top ring,
from the TDC to 60, oats inside the groove as the
pressure dierence between the top and the bottom
side is small. Also the motion is not transferred
from the piston. This creates a gap between the ring
and the piston shown as lift in Fig. 7. When the piston
moves further, it touches the top of the ring and
transfers the motion to the top ring. Then the ring

Fig. 5 Top-ring and second-ring end gap sizes in the

third cylinder

Fig. 7 Average axial lift of the top ring and second ring
in the third cylinder

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Finite element modelling of piston-ring dynamics

has a downward motion. This motion continues

until the piston reaches the BDC. On the other hand,
when the piston moves from the BDC to the TDC,
the ring does not move towards the top face of the
groove, because gas forces dominate and prevent
its upward motion. This continues until the exhaust
stroke after which the gas pressure P drops con1
siderably and the ring moves towards the top face of
the groove.
The second-ring behaviours seem to be dierent
during the compression and expansion strokes (Fig. 7).
Strikingly, the behaviour is the same as that of the
top ring before and after the TDC. In the later expansion stroke, the piston transfers the motion. Then the
ring with inertia force and due to the gas pressure P
3
moves down towards the bottom face of the groove.
During the exhaust stroke the gas force reduces and
the ring due to the inertia force moves towards the
top face of the groove. At this point, it can be noted
that P is less than P and hence the lift of the second
1
3
ring is lower than the top ring.
It is to be noted that the ring lift is calculated by
taking the average of the lift of four points (Fig. 2) at
the inside edge on the bottom face of the rings. The
twist of the rings is also taken into account in the
lift. Hence the average value does not reach zero in
Fig. 7. It can also be observed that there is nonperiodicity in the results shown. This may be due to
the way that the lift is calculated.
The mass ow through the end gap of the second
ring which results in blow-by from the third cylinder
is shown in Fig. 8. The data for the mass ow through
the ring end gap and from side clearance are labelled
gap and side-cl respectively. Equations (1) and (4)
have been used to calculate the mass ows through
the gap and side clearance respectively. It is observed
that the mass ows follow both the pressure P and
3
the second-ring end gap. The mass ow from the

1411

second ring groove to the third land (region 5) is also

shown in Fig. 8. This ow depends on the dierence
in pressure between P and P and the second-ring
4
5
lift. The thickness of the oil lm is assumed to be
10 mm and is taken into account in the calculation.
When the lift is greater than the oil lm thickness,
and the pressure P behind the ring is greater than
4
the pressure P in the third land, the ow takes place
5
from region 4 to region 5. This contributes to the
ow through the end gap, resulting in blow-by. If
the pressure P is less than the pressure P , the ow
4
5
is reversed and occurs from region 5 to region 4,
consequently decreasing the blow-by. The blow-by
through the end gap is 9.75 l/min and through the
side clearance is 1.61 l/min, resulting in a total
blow-by of 11.36 l/min from the third cylinder.
4.2 The blow-by estimation in the fourth cylinder
of the engine
The piston secondary motion and ring end gaps in
the fourth cylinder are shown in Figs 9 and 10
respectively. The pressures P , P , P , and P acting
1 3 4
5
in dierent regions are shown in Fig. 11. The lift of
the rings is shown in Fig. 12. Dierences can be
noted between the piston secondary motions and
ring motions in the third and fourth cylinders. It
can be stated that the dierence between the ring
motions in the fourth and the third cylinders is due
to the dierence in the piston secondary motions. The
dierence was observed even without gas pressure
and has been explained in reference [8]. (The second
harmonic forces are not balanced because the greatest
unbalance occurs at the dead centre positions. When
cranks 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 are at the TDC, all the
masses representing the second harmonic travel in
both directions and pile up at the TDC, giving an
unbalanced force.)

Fig. 8 Mass owrate from the third cylinder

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S N Kurbet and R Krishna Kumar

Fig. 9 Piston tilt and side motion in the fourth cylinder (FTDC, ring top dead centre)

Fig. 10 Top-ring and second-ring end gap sizes in the

fourth cylinder

Fig. 12 Average axial lift of the top ring and second

ring in the fourth cylinder

The mass owrate is given in Fig. 13. Interestingly,

similar trends are observed between the mass
owrates in the two cylinders as shown in Figs 13
and 8. The total blow-by from the fourth cylinder is
estimated to be 10.9 l/min (11.44 l/min through the
end gap and 0.54 l/min reverse through the side
clearance). Thus the sum of the blow-by from the
third and fourth cylinders multiplied by a factor of 2
gives the engine blow-by of 44.52 l/min. In this study
the ring sections are assumed to be rectangular in

cross-section, and the groove chamfer is not taken

into account. The eective leakage area increases by
10 per cent owing to these factors [21]. Thus, if this
is also considered, the blow-by predicted from the
model is 48.92 l/min. The blow-by was measured in
a test set-up [22] and the results are shown in Fig. 14.
It is observed that its value initially is 45 l/min and
varies up to 60 l/min for 1000 h of engine test. The
blow-by predicted by the model agrees very well with
the experimental value.

Fig. 11 Land pressure in the fourth cylinder (FTDC, ring top dead centre)
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JAUTO177 IMechE 2007

Finite element modelling of piston-ring dynamics

1413

Fig. 13 Mass owrate from the fourth cylinder

REFERENCES

Fig. 14

Blow-by measured from the experiment

(LPM, l/min)

5 CONCLUSIONS
Ring dynamic modelling studies that include the
eect of piston secondary motion give a better picture
of ring motions to predict the blow-by of IC engines.
The major ow is through the end gap of the
rings. There is a uctuation in the owrate due to
the variation in the second-ring end gap, which is
inuenced by the piston secondary motion.
The blow-by predicted from the model has a
good correlation with the measured value from the
experiment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Dr N. Gowrishankar
and Mr Ramkumar of IP Rings Ltd for their
experimental contribution in the work.
JAUTO177 IMechE 2007

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APPENDIX
Notation
A
gap
B
C
D
f
m
h
m

ij
P
D
P
i
P
U
R
T
c
m
gas
r
gas

downstream ring end gap area

engine bore size
ow coecient
compressibility factor
clearance between a ring and its groove
mass owrate from region i to region j
(i=1, ,5; j=2, , 5)
gas pressure downstream
gas pressure of region i (i=1, , 5)
gas pressure upstream
gas constant
temperature
ratio of the specic heats
gas dynamic viscosity
gas density

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering

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