A Study on the Distribution of Oil Film Thickness in the Circumferential Direction of Oil Ring in a Gasoline Engine

Author(s):  
Akemi Ito ◽  
Tadatsugu Hakkaku ◽  
Kazuya Mochiduki ◽  
Keita Tomotsune ◽  
Masatsugu Inui ◽  
...  

Abstract Oil traveling upward through the sliding surface of a piston ring causes oil consumption of an engine. Piston rings are designed considering conformability to deformed cylinder bore. However, cylinder deformation sometimes affects strongly oil consumption. It suggests that a piston ring cannot conform dynamically to the cylinder bore. In this study, distribution of oil film thickness of an oil ring was measured for investigating the dynamic conformability. An optical fiber has embedded in the sliding surface of the lower rail of the oil ring, and oil film thickness was measured by laser induced fluorescence method. The measuring point was rotated in the circumferential direction, so the distribution in both the circumferential and the axial direction could be measured. Thick oil films partially were found and it was found that the oil ring did not conformed to the deformed cylinder bore dynamically. Furthermore, such oil film showed thicker value than those expected theoretically. It was showed that dynamic conformability must be considered for piston ring design for reducing oil consumption.

Author(s):  
Akemi Ito ◽  
Kazuya Mochiduki ◽  
Koji Kikuhara ◽  
Masatsugu Inui ◽  
Hirotaka Akamatsu

Engine oil consumption must be reduced for reducing exhaust gas emissions. It is well known that a cylinder bore shape under engine operating condition affects oil consumption. This study aimed clarifying the conformability of an oil ring against the distorted cylinder bore. Oil film thickness at the sliding surface of oil ring upper and lower rails was successfully measured by LIF method using optical fiber, which was embedded in the oil ring. The piston motion was also measured and compared with measured oil film thickness. It was found that the piston tilting motion affected oil film thickness hence its conformability. It was also found that thicker oil film was found at the following rail than that at former rail, and it was suggested that oil was supplied to the following rail from not only the sliding surface of the former ring but also somewhere, for example, the oil ring groove.


Author(s):  
Yibin Guo ◽  
Wanyou Li ◽  
Dequan Zou ◽  
Xiqun Lu ◽  
Tao He

In this paper a mixed lubrication model considering lubricant supply conditions on cylinder bore has been developed for the piston ring lubrication. The numerical procedures of both fully flooded and starved lubrication were included in the model. The lubrication equations and boundary conditions at the end of strokes were discussed in detail. The effects of piston ring design parameters, such as ring face profile and ring tension, on oil film thickness, friction force and power loss under fully flooded and starved lubrication conditions due to available lubricant supply on cylinder bore were studied. The simulation results show that the oil available in the inlet region of the oil film is important to the piston ring friction power loss. With different ring face crown heights and tensions, the changes of oil film thickness and friction force were apparent under fully flooded lubrication, but almost no changes were found under starved lubrication except at the end of a stroke. In addition, the oil film thickness and friction force were affected evidently by the ring face profile offsets under both fully flooded and starved lubrication conditions, and the offset towards the combustion chamber made a large contribution to forming thicker oil film during the expansion stroke. So under different lubricant supply conditions on the cylinder bore, the ring profile and tension need to be adjusted to reduce the friction and power loss. Moreover, the effects of lubricant viscosity, surface composite roughness, and engine operating speed on friction force and power loss were also discussed.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 1081-1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Piao ◽  
S. D. Gulwadi

The role of cylinder bore shapes in engine performance has been the subject of several studies in recent years. In particular, the influence of bore distortion on oil consumption under high speed conditions has generated significant interest. In this paper, the effect of an axial bore profile on radial dynamics of a ring is investigated. Radial ring motions within grooves due to the axial bore profile can generate significant inertial effects and also have an impact on ring end-gap sizes and lubrication conditions at the ring-liner interfaces. The magnitude of such effects is dependent on the ring-pack configuration, engine operating conditions (speed and load) and axial bore profile details. These issues are investigated in this study due to their implication on engine oil consumption, friction and blow-by. The authors have developed an analytical expression to account for the effects of radial ring inertia due to an axial bore profile for implementation in a piston ring-pack simulation tool RINGPAK. Simulation results from a gasoline engine study are presented to illustrate the effects of engine speeds, ring tensions, and characteristics of axial bore profiles on ring radial dynamics and ring-liner lubrication. Relevant qualitative comparisons are made to experimental measurements available in the literature.


Author(s):  
Y. Piao ◽  
S. D. Gulwadi

The role of cylinder bore shapes in engine performance has been the subject of several studies in recent years. In particular, the influence of bore distortion on oil consumption under high speed conditions has generated significant interest. In this paper, the effect of an axial bore profile on radial dynamics of a ring is investigated. Radial ring motions within grooves due to the axial bore profile can generate significant inertial effects and also have an impact on ring end-gap sizes and lubrication conditions at the ring-liner interfaces. The magnitude of such effects is dependent on the ring-pack configuration, engine operating conditions (speed and load) and axial bore profile details. These issues are investigated in this study due to their implication on engine oil consumption, friction and blow-by. The authors have developed an analytical expression to account for the effects of radial ring inertia due to an axial bore profile for implementation in a piston ring–pack simulation tool RINGPAK. Simulation results from a gasoline engine study are presented to illustrate the effects of engine speeds, ring tensions and characteristics of axial bore profiles on ring radial dynamics and ring-liner lubrication. Relevant qualitative comparisons are made to experimental measurements available in the literature.


Author(s):  
Yasuo Harigaya ◽  
Kazuyoshi Yamasuga ◽  
Michiyoshi Suzuki ◽  
Naoki Iijima ◽  
Masaaki Takiguchi ◽  
...  

A new oil evaporation model was developed, combining a thermo-hydrodynamic lubrication model with a conventional oil evaporation model considering the energy balance on the oil film surface. This model assumed that there was evaporation loss of the oil film on the cylinder wall. In addition, the effects of the oil film thickness and types of lubricant in the evaporated oil from the liner were examined. Moreover, the calculated evaporative oil was compared with the measured oil consumption of a gasoline engine. The relationship between the evaporated oil, the lubricant viscosity, and the oil film thickness were clarified using this model. The results showed that the calculated oil evaporation from the cylinder wall closely corresponded to the measured oil consumption under low load conditions.


Author(s):  
Kenta Tomizawa ◽  
Akemi Ito

Abstract Oil consumption of an engine causes particulate matter, poisoning catalysts and sometimes abnormal combustion like pre-ignition. One of the factors of oil consumption is oil transport via a piston ring-gap. Coincident of ring-gaps at a same position may cause an increase in oil consumption. In this research, the effect of coincident the ring gaps on oil consumption was measured using with/without the a stopper pin for the ring rotation by sulfur tracer method. A lot of spikes was found in the wave form of sulfur concentrate for the rings without the stopper pin, and higher value of oil consumption was simultaneously measured. Then the force which caused ring rotation (hereafter ‘rotational force’) was measured by a newly developed method. A cantilever was installed in the ring gap, and the strain gauges were pasted on the cantilever. Therefore, the rotational force was measured as the bending stress of the cantilever. It was found that the rotational force showed a periodic wave form against the crank angle. Furthermore, it was also found that the amplitude of the rotational force was strong affected by the engine operating conditions. The rotational force was also affected by the gap position. It was assumed that not only the piston lateral motion but also the cylinder bore shape affected the rotational force. The mechanism of generating the rotational force is the future subject.


Author(s):  
Akemi Ito ◽  
Kazuya Mochiduki ◽  
Koji Kikuhara ◽  
Masatsugu Inui ◽  
Hirotaka Akamatsu

It is known that a cylinder-bore shape affects engine oil consumption. This study aimed clarifying the conformability of an oil-ring under engine operating condition. Oil film thickness at the sliding surface of oil-ring rails was measured by laser induced fluorescence (LIF) method using optical fiber embedded in the oil-ring. Findings showed that the piston tilting motion affected oil film thickness. Furthermore, thicker oil film was found at the following rail than that at former rail. It suggested that oil was supplied to the following rail from not only the former ring sliding surface but also somewhere, for example, the oil ring groove.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-306
Author(s):  
Brahim Menacer ◽  
Mostefa Bouchetara

The oil consumption in an internal combustion engine is an important source of pollution and particulate emissions, main efforts are done by the manufacturers to reduce to the maximum the impact of the oil consumption on the emissions of the engine, and to satisfy the increasingly rigorous standards of pollution. The losses by friction due to piston ring friction explain 20 % of the total mechanical losses in internal combustion engines. A reduction in piston ring friction would therefore result in higher efficiency, lower fuel consumption and reduced emissions. The goal of this study is to develop a numerical method by using of GT-Suite software to analyze the influence of engine speed and engine load during the working cycle on oil film thickness, frictional force, power losses. Our predicted results were validated with the experimental data of a previous study, and they have shown a good agreement. The results in the current analysis demonstrated that the engine speed and load have a remarkable effect on oil film thickness, friction force and friction power losses between the top ring and cylinder liner. So, it would help in reducing friction as well as making a contribution towards the improvement of engine performance such as torque, efficiency and fuel consumption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Lvjun Qing ◽  
Lichen Gu ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Wei Xue ◽  
Zhufeng Lei

The bent-axis piston pump is the core component of electrohydrostatic actuators (EHA) in aerospace applications, and its wear of key friction interfaces is greatly related to the healthy operation of pumps. The leakage of the piston ring-cylinder bore interface (PRCB), as the important part of the return oil flow of the pump house that commonly assesses the wear of key friction interfaces in piston pumps, is changed with the rotation speed. Thus, the wear of key friction interfaces is usually inaccurate by using the leakage of PRCB. In order to obtain the relationship between the PRCB leakage and the rotation speed, an elastohydrodynamic lubrication model is proposed. First, the proposed model includes a minimum film thickness model of PRCB to analyze the dynamic change of oil film of PRCB when subject to the elastohydrodynamic lubrication. After that, a mathematical model of PRCB is induced by combining the minimum film thickness model with the flow equation, which helps produce the effects of the oil film on the leakage of PRCB. The proposed model is verified by numerical simulation and experiment. The results show that the leakage of PRCB has a negative effect on the return oil flow of the pump case in the range of rotation speed of 700–1300 r/min and discharge pressure of 10–20 MPa. Furthermore, the leakage of PRCB is proportional to the rotation speed, but the return oil flow of the pump case is decreased. The effects of rotation speed are enhanced under the high discharge pressure conditions.


Author(s):  
SR Bewsher ◽  
M Mohammadpour ◽  
H Rahnejat ◽  
G Offner ◽  
O Knaus

In order to accurately predict the lubricant film thickness and generated friction in any tribological contact, it is important to determine appropriate boundary conditions, taking into account the oil availability and extent of starvation. This paper presents a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of a piston ring pack for prediction of lubricant film thickness, friction and total power loss. The model takes into account starvation caused by reverse flow at the conjunctional inlet wedge, and applied to a ring pack, comprising a compression and scraper ring. Inlet boundaries are calculated for an engine cycle of a four-cylinder, four-stroke gasoline engine operating at 1500 r/min with conditions pertaining to the New European Drive Cycle. The analysis shows the two main sources of starvation: first, due to a physical lack of inlet meniscus and second, due to reverse flow at the inlet wedge significantly affecting the prevailing conditions from the generally assumed idealised boundary conditions. Such an approach has not hitherto been reported in literature.


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