Proc. of IME, Journal of Engineering Tribology, Vol.212. Part J No.3, 1998: 221~226.

A Comprehensive Study of the Friction and Dynamic Motion of the Piston Assembly
Liu K 1 Xie Y B 2 Gui C L 1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, People's Republic of China 2 Theory of Lubrication and Bearing Institute, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China Abstract: A mixed lubrication model based on a two-dimensional average Reynolds equation is presented in this paper. It is developed for use in conjunction with a piston secondary motion analysis. The motion has been studied and the effects of structure parameters and different profiles of piston skirts on the motion are also investigated. The friction force and power loss consisting of piston skirt friction and the friction of the piston ring pack are also given. Keywords: piston assembly; lubrication; secondary motion; friction

NOTATION a axial distance between wrist pin and top of piston skirt b axial distance between piston CG and top of piston skirt C radial clearance between piston skirt and cylinder wall C g denotes the position of the centre of mass C p wrist pin offset D c diameter of cylinder bore e b , e t , e p eccentricities E b , E t dimensionless form of e b and e t F c force acting on the connecting rod F f , F forces generated by hydrodynamic action F g gas pressure F ip , F ic inertial forces caused by secondary motion F py , F cy inertial forces caused by reciprocating motion h nominal film thickness

ht mean value of oil-film thickness

I pis rotary inertia of piston l c length of connecting rod L length of piston skirt L 1 axial distance between wrist pin and bottom of piston skirt m pin mass of wrist pin m pis mass of piston M, M f moment generated by hydrodynamic action M ic internal moment caused by second motion
The MS was received on 14 June 1995 and was accepted for publication on 22 July 1996.

n engine speed p fluid pressure q (y) profile of piston skirt r radius of crank R radius of piston skirt t time T period of engine cycle u axial velocity of piston assembly x, y coordinate system used in the paper

reciprocating acceleration tilt angle crank angle oil viscosity composite roughness r.m.s. roughness of cylinder bore r.m.s. roughness of piston skirt shear stress angle between the connecting rod and piston moving direction

1 2 x ,

y , s

flow factors

circumferential angle around the piston axis

Introduction

Piston skirts have a function of guiding the moving direction of piston assemblies and supporting side thrust against the cylinder wall. The oil film between the skirt and cylinder wall damps piston slap, reduces slap noise and keeps the skirt from scuffing. The secondary motion of the piston assemblies also affects the friction, wear, lubrication and sealing effect of the piston rings. In earlier analyses, the effect of hydrodynamics between the skirts and cylinder walls was ignored (1, 2). Subsequently, Knoll and Peeken (3) considered the skirt lubrication problem in isolation. Li et al. (4) developed a hydrodynamic lubrication model based on the Reynolds equation in conjunction with the equations of motion of the piston. They calculated the motion of piston assemblies associated with skirt friction force and the friction power loss. Aimed at calculating piston slap, Okubo et al. (5) obtained piston motion, but used a simplified approach to characterize the forces and moments due to hydrodynamic lubrication. However, in all the models mentioned above, the effect of surface roughness has not been considered. In the work presented by Zhu and Cheng (6), a model of solid-to-solid contact between the skirts and cylinder walls was suggested for the first time. In this paper, based on the two-dimensional average Reynolds equation, which takes account of the effect of surface roughness, and in conjunction with the dynamic equations of piston, the secondary motion of piston assemblies is studied. The effects of structure parameters and the different profiles of piston skirts are included. The friction force and power loss of piston assemblies consisting of piston skirt friction and the friction of the piston ring pack are also given in the paper.

2
2.1

Mathematical Model

Equations of motion Considering the motion of a piston assembly, the forces and moments applying to the piston cause it to have a tilt around the wrist pin axis and a translation perpendicular to the cylinder axis. The eccentricities at the top and the bottom of the piston skirt are represented by e t and e b while the eccentricity of the centre of the wrist pin and the tilt angle of the piston are e p and . The relationships can be written as follows:

e t = ep + eb = ep ( L )
which can both be expressed in dimensionless form:

1 2

Et =

et , C

Eb =

eb C

A schematic drawing of the piston assembly system is given in Fig. 1, where all of the forces and moments are shown. The equilibrium of the forces and moments demands that

Fg + Ff + Fpy + Fcy + Fc cos = 0 F + Fip + Fic Fc sin = 0 M + M ic + Fic (a b) Fcy C g + Fg C p + M f = 0

Eliminating F c from equations (3) and (4) gives

3 4 5

Fip Fic = Fs + F + Ff tan

M ic Fic ( a b) = M s + M + M f
where

6 7

Fs = ( Fg + Fpy + Fcy ) tan M s = Fg C p Fcy C g

= arc tan[ B(l c2 B 2 )]0.5

B = r sin
Fpy = m pinY Fcy = m pisY
The inertial forces and moment caused by secondary motion can be calculated as follows:

a Fip = m pin e t + (eb e t ) L

b Fic = m pis e t + (eb e t ) L

M ic =

I pis (e t eb ) L

10

Fig. 1

A schematic drawing of the piston-cylinder wall system

Substituting equations (8), (9) and (10) into equations (6) and (7) gives the following equations of motion of the piston:

L1 b a b m pin L + mpis 1 L mpin L + mpis L e F + F + F tan s f t = I pis b b I pis e b M + M s + M f L + m pis H 1 L m pis H L L

11

After solving equation (11), the locus of secondary motion of the piston assembly is obtained. When F g is given, F s and M s can easily be calculated. Therefore, the problem now concerns how to determine F, F f , M and M f before solving equation (11). F, F f , M and M f are generated by the hydrodynamic film between the skirt and cylinder wall and can be determined using the model discussed in the following section. 2.2 Average flow model The average flow model developed by Patir and Cheng (7) is employed in the present work to include the effect of surface roughness on hydrodynamic lubrication. The twodimensional average Reynolds equation applied to the piston skirt-cylinder wall lubrication can be written as

h 3 p h 3 p u hT u hT x + y = + + x 12 x y 12 x 2 x 2 x t
The oil-film thickness between the skirt and cylinder wall can be approximated by

12

h = C + e t cos + (eb e t )

y cos + q ( y ) L

13

where q(y) is a function of the skirt profile measured from a cylindrical reference surface. Hydrodynamic pressure is obtained by solving the Reynolds equation. Thus the forces and moments due to hydrodynamics can be calculated by the following integrations:

F = p cos dxdy
Ff = dxdy

14 15 16 17

M = p ( a y ) cos dxdy
M f = R cos dxdy

The shear stress comprises two parts: one is the fluid shear stress and the other is the shear stress caused by the shearing of asperities, which is determined by employing Greenwood and Tripp's model (8). 2.3 Numerical procedure Assuming e b = e t = 0 , then a Newton iterative algorithm is employed to solve equation (11) and the periodic solution of e b and e t is then obtained. From e t and e b , the acceleration e b and e t can be calculated by a finite difference method. Once this is done, equation (11) is checked to see whether it is satisfied; if it is not satisfied, the current equation (11) is solved again. The above procedure is repeated until

e t (t ) = e t ( t + T ) e b (t ) = e b (t + T )
are satisfied. Then the procedure is terminated.

Results And Discussion

The model is investigated with a set of original input parameters, listed in Table 1. The calculated force F g based on a given indicator diagram is plotted in Fig. 2 as a function of the crank angle. In order to study the dimensional effect of the piston structure parameters on secondary motion, three kinds of wrist pin offsets, say C = 1,0,-1(mm), were investigated. The transverse displacements on the top and the bottom of the piston skirt are shown in Fig. 3 as a function of the crank angle, while the tilt of the piston assembly and the friction force on the piston skirt are shown in Figs 4 and 5. This demonstrates that the offset of the wrist pin has a significant influence on the locus of piston secondary motion. When C p = 0, the tilt of the piston assembly is much smaller than that of C p =1 mm and C p = -1 mm and E t and E b are also smaller. From the plots of friction force as a function of the crank angle, it can be seen that, in the intake stroke and expansion stroke, when C p = -1 mm; the friction force is the largest. When C p = 0, the friction force is not the largest in all the strokes. Tables 2 and 3 give the maximum values of the components of secondary motion and the minimum oil-film thickness between the skirt and cylinder wall.

Fig.2

Gas force acting on the piston crown

In order to investigate the effect of piston skirt profiles, the results of two kinds of skirt profiles, i.e. linear and parabolic, are listed. For the parabolic profile, the transverse displacements are small and the oil-film thickness is large, especially when C=0. Such results are important for improving the design of the piston assembly and reducing piston skirt scuffing. The performance of the parabolic profile is better than that of the linear profile. It is recognized that the parabolic piston skirt profile can sustain hydrodynamic lubrication during both up and down strokes, while the linear profile sustains hydrodynamic lubrication only in one of the up or down strokes. The curves in Fig. 6 show the piston secondary motions at different engine speeds. Fig. 7 gives the results under different radial clearances. When the engine speed becomes higher or the radial clearance becomes smaller, the secondary motion of the piston assembly decreases because of stronger hydrodynamic action in the lubrication film. However, the friction force is increased because of the high shearing rate in oil

Fig. 3

The effects of the wrist pin position on secondary motion of the piston assembly

Fig.4

Piston tilt under different wrist pin offsets

Fig.5

The effect of the wrist pin offset on piston skirt friction

Fig. 6

The effect of engine speed on secondary motion of the piston assembly

film caused by the small clearance and high engine speed. When C= 0.05 mm and C=0.03 mm, the average friction forces are 23 and 33.5 N respectively. When engine speeds are 1000, 2000 and 3000 r/min, the average friction forces are 19.2, 23.6 and 33.8 N. Figures 8 and 9 show the friction force and power loss of the piston assembly when the profile of the skirt is parabolic, consisting of piston ring pack friction and piston skirt friction. The friction force of the piston ring pack is obtained by studying the lubrication property of the piston ring-cylinder wall. More details about the analysis of the piston ring pack can be seen in reference (9). Table 4 gives the average friction force and power loss of the piston assembly for the linear skirt and parabolic skirt. From the results shown, it can be seen that the power loss of the piston skirt accounts for

29.2 and 30.3 per cent of the total piston assembly power loss for the linear skirt and parabolic skirt respectively.

Fig. 7

The effect of radial clearance on secondary motion of the piston assembly

Fig. 8

the friction power of the piston assembly

4 Conclusions
(1) Based on the average flow model in conjunction with the equation of motion, the secondary motion of piston assembly is studied. As the effect of surface roughness is included when solving the hydrodynamic pressure, the results are more practical. (2) Results show that the piston skirt profile, engine speed, wrist pin offset and radial clearance all play important roles in determining the secondary motion of piston assembly. For high engine speed and small radial clearance, the secondary motion tends to decrease. (3) The comprehensive effect of the parabolic piston skirt profile is better than that of the linear one, because a parabolic skirt profile can sustain hydrodynamic lubrication in both the up and down strokes.

Acknowledgement The financial support of this research was provided by the National Tribology Laboratory, Tsing Hua University.

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Bishop G R, Leavitt A H. Performance simulation of a diesel piston and ring system. SAE paper 750768, 1975. Haddad S O, Howard D A. Analysis of piston slap induced noise and assessment of some methods of control in diesel engines. SAE paper 800517, 1980. Knoll G D, Peeken H J. Hydrodynamic lubrication of piston skirts. Trans. ASME, J. Lubric. Technol., 1982,104, 504~509. Li D F, Rhode S M, Ezzat H A. An automotive piston lubrication model. ASLE Trans., 1983, 26, 151~160. Okabo M, Kanda H, Yonegawa T. Analysis and reduction of piston slap noise in diesel engines. SAE paper 890127, 1989. Zhu D, Cheng H S. Anumerical analysis for piston skirt in mixed lubrication. Research Report, Northwestern University, 1991. Patir N, Cheng H S. An average flow model for determining effects of three dimensional roughness on partial hydrodynamic lubrication. Trans. ASME, 1978, 100, 12~17. Greenwood J A, Tripp J H. The contact of two nominally flat rough surfaces. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1970-1, 185, 625~633. Liu K. The investigation of the friction and lubrication property of piston ring pack and the establishment of wear model of piston ring-cylinder wall. PhD thesis, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 1995.