Proceedings of the National Conference on Emerging Trends In Mechanical Engineering 2k13

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF A DIESEL PISTON RING BY USING FEA

1

Mr.K.Kadambanathan, 2E.Selvan

Assistant Professor, 2PG Students

Department Of Mechanical Engineering,

Mailam Engineering College, Mailam
E-Mail: 1kadams_chem2006@yahoo.co.in,2 selvanauto@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Elastic finite element models were used to calculate the stresses in a diesel piston ring, for centrifugal forces,
gas pressure, piston-to-cylinder contact and thermo-mechanical loading. A fatigue analysis superimposed the four
loading conditions and calculated the fatigue life at each node on the model, adjusting the materials fatigue
properties for the effects of nodal temperature. The identification of fatigue-critical locations, and the calculated
fatigue lives, showed good agreement with test results
This work is concerned only with the analysis of fatigue-damaged pistons ring. Pistons from petrol and diesel
engines, from automobiles, motorcycles and trains will be analyzed. Damages initiated at the crown, ring grooves,
pin hole sand skirt are assessed. A compendium of case studies of fatigue-damaged pistons is presented. An analysis
of both thermal fatigue and mechanical fatigue damages is presented and analyzed in this work

the cylinder to prevent the escape of combustion

1. INTRODUCTION.

gases. It also transmits heat to the cooling oil and

some of the heat through the piston rings to the

Piston ring materials and designs have evolved

cylinder wall. As one of the main components in an

over the years and will continue to do so until fuel

engine, pistons technological evolution is expected to

cells, exotic batteries or something else makes the

continue and they are expected to be more and

internal combustion engines obsolete. The main

stronger, lighter, thinner and durable. The main

reason of this continuous effort of evolution is based

reason is because the mechanical efficiency of an

on the fact that the piston may be considered the

engine is still low and only about 25% of the original

_heart_ of an engine .The piston is one of the most

energy is used in brake power. Not with standing this

stressed components of an entire vehicle Pistons must

technological evolution there are still a significant

also be light enough to keep inertial loads on related

number of damaged pistons Damages may have

parts to a minimum. The piston also aids in sealing

different

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origins:

mechanical

stresses;

thermal

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stresses; wear mechanisms; temperature degradation,

III.ANALYSIS OF COMPRESSION RING

oxidation mechanisms; etc. In this work only

mechanical damages and in particular fatigue
damages will be assessed.
The cyclic stresses/deformations have mainly two
origins: load and temperature. Traditional mechanical
fatigue may be the main damaging mechanism in
different parts of a piston depending on different

Fig:1 Dimension of piston ring

factors. High temperature fatigue (which includes

creep) is also present in some damaged pistons ring.
Thermal fatigue and thermalmechanical fatigue are
also present in other damaged pistons. In this work,
different pistons, from different kinds of engines:
train engines; motorcycle engines; and automotive
engines will be presented

II. Experimental work

Fig:2 Dimension of piston

The fatigue-damaged piston rings assessed on

this work may be divided into two categories: the
mechanical

and

high

temperature

mechanical

damaged pistons and the thermal and thermal

mechanical damaged pistons rings.
The

mechanical

and

high

temperature

mechanical damaged pistons may be divided

according to the damaged area: piston head; piston
Fig:3 Engine Piston With Damaged Grooves

pin holes; piston compression ring grooves; and

piston skirt. The analysis, in this work, will be made

IV. THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

according to this classification.

Finite element method is a numerical

And analyzed in this work

analysis

technique

for

obtaining

approximate

solutions to a wide variety of engineering problems.

Although originally developed and applied to the
broad field of continuum mechanics. Because of its
diversity and flexibility as analysis tool, it is

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receiving much attention in engineering schools and

Application: Piston ring with high break resistance

industry.

Chemical composition (%):

C: 3.0 - 3.7 Si: 1.5 - 2.3 Mn: 0.5 - 1.0
In more and more engineering situation

P: max 0.4 S: max 0.15 Cr: 0.2 - 0.7

today, it is necessary to obtain numerical solutions to

Mo: max 0.5 Cu: max 0.5

problem rather than exact closed from solutions. The

Other elements may be present as impurities.

resourcefulness of the analyst usually comes to the

Microstructure:

rescue and provides several alternatives to overcome

Graphite: predominantly lamellar and uniformly

this dilemma. One possibility is to make simplifying

distributed

assumption to ignore the difficulties and reduce the

Matrix: pearlite, ferrite not exceeding 5 %

problem to one that can be handled sometimes this

Phosphates eutectic: predominantly non-continuous

procedure works but more often than not it leads to

network

series inaccurate or wrong answers.

Mechanical properties:
Hardness: 200 - 280 HB

Now that computers are widely available, a

more viable alternative is to retain the complexities

Bending strength: min 420 MPa

of the problem and to find an approximate numerical

Modulus of elasticity: 90000 - 120000 MPa

solution.

Material: LP 8Alloyed lamellar cast iron

Application: Wear resistant piston rings with high
A finite element model of a problem gives a

break resistance Above 200 mm nominal diameter

piecewise approximation to the governing equations.

Chemical composition (%):

The basic premise of the finite element method is that

3.4 Si: 1.2 - 1.6 Mn: 0.6 - 0.9

a solution region can be analytically modeled or

P: 0.1 - 0.2 S: max 0.05 Cr: 0.1 - 0.3

approximated by replacing it with an assemblage of

V: 0.1 - 0.3 Mo: 0.4 - 0.7 Cu: 0.4 - 0.8

C: 2.9 -

discrete elements since these can be put together in a

Other elements may be present as impurities.

variety of ways, they can be put together in a variety

Microstructure: Graphite: preferably A-graphite,

of ways, and they can be used to represent

size: 4 - 6 Matrix: perlite with special carbides, max

exceedingly complex shape.

5 % ferrite Phosphate eutektikum: point-reticular

shaped

Compression Rings

Mechanical properties:
Hardness: 220 - 280 HB 2.5/187.5

The compression rings provide sealing above

Tensile strength: min 340 MPa

the piston and prevents the gas leakage from the

Bending strength: min 700 MPa

combustion side. The compression rings are located

Modulus of elasticity: 110000-140000 MPa

in the top most grooves of the piston. However, this

may differ according the design of the engine. The
main function of these rings is to seal the combustion
gases and transfer heat from the piston to piston
walls.

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V.APPLIED LOADS
The in-piston ring compressive load has
been determined from an actual engine running
critical load cases on ring at various conditions such
etc. and is applied on piston ring outer side. The
compressive load is found to be 420Mba.
The details of the compression ring

MESHING COMRESION RING

Outside diameter of the ring : 59.5mm

1
ELEMENTS

Inside diameter of the ring

: 56mm

Width of the ring

: 3mm

Load on the ring

: 420Mp

DEC 7 2012
15:05:51

Y
X
Z

VI.MODELING OF PISTON RING

FOR STATIC CONDTION
Fig: 2.Meshing compression ring

The finite element model is generated using solid

185 element type using sweep mesh the wheel and
the connecting links are meshed the platform model

DISPLACEMENT OF THE RING

generated as using mapped mesh platform solid

model is changed to FEA model

1
ELEMENTS
DEC 7 2012
15:11:28

1
VOLUMES
DEC 7 2012
15:02:38

TYPE NUM

Y
Z

Y
Z

Fig:5 Displacement Of The Ring

Fig;4 Modeling of compression ring

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DISPLACEMENT ARESST

1
DISPLACEMENT
DEC 7 2012
15:24:18

STEP=1
SUB =1
TIME=1
DMX =10317

1
ELEMENTS
DEC 7 2012
15:19:52

U
F

Y
Z

Y
Z

Fig;8 deformed Shape Of Ring

1
NODAL SOLUTION
DEC 7 2012
15:26:20

STEP=1
SUB =1
TIME=1
UX
(AVG)
RSYS=0
DMX =10317
SMN =-1469
SMX =2581

Fig :6 Displacement Arrest

1

ELEMENTS
DEC 7 2012
15:18:44

U
F

MX
MN

Z
-1469

-1019

-568.838

-118.894

331.05

780.994

1231

1681

2131

2581

Fig9; Deformed shape shear stress of piston ring

Fig;7 Load applied on of the compression ring

VIII.BENDING STRENGTH OF PISTON

RING

VII.DEFORMED SHAPE OF RING

1
NODAL SOLUTION
DEC 7 2012
15:27:06

STEP=1
SUB =1
TIME=1
SXY
(AVG)
RSYS=0
DMX =10317
SMN =-.217E+08
SMX =.497E+08

Different damage mechanisms where fatigue

prevails over other damaging mechanisms will be

assessed. For a better understanding of the damaging

mechanism different analytical tools, such as finite

MX
MN

element analysis, metallurgical analysis, etc., will be

used whenever they are necessary for a clear
-.217E+08

understanding of the damaging mechanism. A finite

-.138E+08

-.584E+07

.210E+07

.100E+08

.180E+08

.259E+08

.339E+08

.418E+08

.497E+08

Fig; 10 Bending Strength Of Piston Ring

element linear static analysis

The cyclic stresses/deformations have mainly two
VIII.ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

origins: load and temperature. Traditional mechanical

fatigue may be the main damaging mechanism in

The fatigue analysis used the ANSYS software

different parts of a piston depending on different

from Safe Technology. And FEA-SAFE

factor

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accesses the results database of ANSYS, and writes

and higher stresses. To satisfy all the requirements

fatigue analysis results . The fatigue life results can

with regard to successful application of pistons, in

then be displayed as 3-dimensional contour plots

particular

using the FEA graphics. In this analysis, FEA-SAFE

mechanical fatigue and thermal/thermalmechanical

superimposed the four types of loading. The

fatigue there are several concepts available that can

centrifugal stresses were multiplied by a time history

be used to improve its use, such as design, materials,

of centrifugal force based on reciprocating mass and

processing technologies,

mechanical

and

high

temperature

engine speed. The gas pressure stresses were

multiplied by the pressure curve. These calculated

REFERENCE

time histories of nodal stresses were The fatigue lives

[1]

at each node were calculated. FE-SAFE also

Junker H, Issler W. Pistons for high loaded

direct injection diesel engines. MAHLETechnical

calculates fatigue strength factors at each node for a

information

specified design life. The analysis included the

[2]

effects of temperature on the fatigue properties of the

Taylo CM. Automobile engine tribology

design considerations for efficiency and

material.

durability. Wear 1998; 221:18.

The contour plot of fatigue lives is shown in Figure

[3]

The analysis has identified the most critical fatigue

An analytical approach for prediction of piston

crack initiation sites, and these agree well with test

temperature distribution in dieselengines. JSAE Rev

results

2002;23(4):42934.
[4]

FUTURE WORK

Kajiwara H, Fujioka Y, Suzuki T, Negishi H.

Payri F, Benajes J, Margot X, Gil A. CFD

modeling
Work is continuing on algorithms to calculate

injection

elastic-plastic stresses from the Elastic FEA, for the

of

the
diesel

in-cylinder

flow

engines.

in

direct-

Computer

Fluids2004;33(8):9951021.

general case of out-of-phase stresses with fluctuation

stress Amplitudes. Further work on the effects of
large compressive stresses and temperature fatigue is
also proceeding
CONCLUSION
The first main conclusion that could be drawn from
this work is that although fatigue is not the
responsible for biggest slice of damaged pistons, it
remains a problem on engine pistons and its solution
remains a goal for piston manufacturers. And it will
last a problem for long because efforts on fuel
consumption reduction and power increase will push
to the limit weight reduction that means thinner walls

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