Numerical Simulation of Temperature Distribution in A Tri-Cycle Engine Piston

Abstract

Pistons as one of the most complex components among all automotives and other industry field components are designed to withstand damage caused due to extreme heat and pressure of combustion process. Many of experimental studies regarding the internal combustion engines process have been carried out, but few had only focused on the numerical studies like stress distribution, thermal and heat transfer analysis. This present study focuses on a 3-D transient state temperature distribution analysis on a gasoline piston model of a tri-cycle. Mathematical model was formulated, solved and simulated using a Finite Element Method (FEM) in-built in the COMSOL Multiphysics software 4.3a to determine the temperature distribution and gradient of the piston model ranging from 523K – 673K. The parameters used for the simulation were liquid (Gasoline), Gases (Air) and Aluminium alloy UNSA96061 (Piston). The Completed mesh tetrahedral consists of 86225 elements and the number of degrees of freedom solved for were 18553 in 367 s (6 minutes, 7 seconds) in the mesh optimization. It was discovered from the results obtained that the temperature in the combustion chamber of the tricycle engine varies with respect to time, along the piston.The transient analysis from the time dependent solver revealed that the temperature of the piston at the TDC (Top Dead Centre) in the first power stroke is higher compared to the subsequent power strokes, which is an indication that more heat was transfer at subsequent power strokes. Probable recommendations were later made.