Thermal analysis on piston of marine diesel engine

In this paper, an inverse heat transfer method is employed to conduct thermal numerical analysis on a 4-ring articulated piston of marine diesel engine. The secondary motion of piston and piston ring, and the lubrication oil film has been considered in estimating the coefficient of heat transfer values. Specially manufactured metal plugs were installed in the head of an articulated piston and the piston skirt to measure the temperature distribution of them. A Series of thermal couples were used for cylinder temperature measurement. The boundary condition for numerical simulation is verified with experiment result and applied to predict the temperature distribution of a new piston design which had small change of piston head profile and one less ring scheme. Reasonable agreement was obtained between prediction and experiment for the new design. Experiment result showed increase of temperature in low-temperature area and decrease of maximum value in high-temperature area. The thermal load of the top ring for new piston was lower than old one. The new design had some potential of intensifying improvement from the view point of piston thermal load.