The elastohydrodynamic lubrication of piston rings

The piston seal that separates the hostile environment of the combustion chamber from the crankcase that contains the lubricant is an essential machine element in reciprocating engines. The sealing force pressing the piston rings against the cylinder liner varies with the combustion chamber pressure to form an effective self-adjusting mechanism. The conjunctions between piston rings and cylinder liners are thus subjected to cyclic variations of load, entraining velocity and effective lubricant temperature as the piston reciprocates within the cylinder. Recent theoretical and experimental studies have confirmed that piston rings enjoy hydrodynamic lubrication throughout most of the engine cycle, but that a transition to mixed or boundary lubrication can be expected near top dead centre. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the suggestion that elastohydrodynamic lubrication might contribute to the tribological performance of the piston seal, particularly near top dead centre. The mode of lubrication in eight four-stroke and six two-stroke diesel engines is assessed in terms of the dimensionless viscosity and elasticity parameters proposed by Johnson (1970), and the associated map of lubrication régimes. The survey indicates unequivocally that elastohydrodynamic action can be expected during part of the stroke in all the engines considered. In the second part of the paper a detailed examination of the influence of elastohydrodynamic action in one particular engine is presented to confirm the general findings recorded in the study of lubrication régimes. Current analysis of the lubrication of rigid piston rings already takes account of the variation of surface temperature along the cylinder liner and its influence upon lubricant viscosity. It is shown that, when the enhancing influence of pressure upon viscosity is added to the analysis of rigid piston rings, the predicted cyclic minimum film thickness is more than doubled. Full elastohydrodynamic action, involving both local distortion of the elastic solids and the influence of pressure upon viscosity, results in a fourfold increase in film thickness. It is further shown that it is necessary to take account of the variation of squeeze-film velocity throughout the lubricated conjunction at each crank angle if reliable predictions of film shape and thickness are to be achieved. It is thus concluded that the wave of elastic deformation, which ripples up and down the cylinder liners many times each second in diesel engines, together with the associated local elastic deformations on the piston rings themselves, combine with the influence of pressure upon lubricant viscosity to enhance the minimum oil film thickness in the piston seal by elastohydrodynamic action.