Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Alloys and Compounds

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jalcom

Thermal analysis of Nano ceramic coated piston used in natural gas

engine
Zhimin Yao*, Zuoqin Qian
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430063, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Nano ceramic coatings have low thermal conductivity which can provide good heat insulation properties,
Received 14 April 2018 and therefore they have been widely used in industrial design as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). In the
Received in revised form design of internal combustion engines, TBCs have been used on combustion chamber components to
21 July 2018
improve engine performance. In this paper, improvement in the working performance of natural gas
Accepted 24 July 2018
engines is demonstrated when an aluminum alloy piston is sprayed with a Y2O3 partially stabilized
Available online 26 July 2018
zirconia (PYSZ) ceramic coating. Steady-state thermal analyses were used to determine the effects of the
ceramic coating on temperature distributions. Output was compared with results from an uncoated
Keywords:
Nano ceramic
conventional piston using the finite element method. Results show that the temperature at the top
Thermal barrier coating surface of coated piston is significantly higher (about 44% or 153
C higher) than that of the uncoated
Natural gas engine piston. This higher combustion chamber temperature results in better engine thermal efficiency and
Temperature lower emissions. Simultaneously, the temperature of the coated piston substrate is much lower (about
Finite element method 12% or 43
C lower) than that of the uncoated piston. The lower metallic substrate temperature provides
better thermal fatigue protection for the piston.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction reduction in exhaust emissions. In addition, TBCs can provide

Ceramic coatings are widely used in industry to protect a variety
of structural engineering materials from corrosion, wear, erosion,
and to provide heat insulation. In the design of internal combustion
engines, the thermal barrier coating (TBC) is a typical and widely
used ceramic coating material for thermal insulation. Although this
coating has been used extensively in engines for the aerospace
industry, it has only been tentatively applied to the internal com-
bustion engine (ICE). Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) made of low
thermal conductivity ceramics can effectively reduce the in-
cylinder heat loss of an internal combustion engine and hence
impact an engine's working performance [1]. Applications of TBCs
in internal combustion engines have been the subject of substantial
investigation. Ceramic coatings have been applied as thermal bar-
riers on surfaces of combustion chamber components to reduce the
heat transfer between in-cylinder gases and the cylinder wall,
reduce heat loss and increase in-cylinder temperature, thereby
improving the thermal efficiency of the engine as defined by a
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yaozm@whut.edu.cn (Z. Yao).
thermal fatigue protection for the metallic combustion chamber
components of engines. In general, insulation with TBCs on the
surface of combustion chambers impacts combustion emissions
and the structural performance of internal combustion engines.
A pioneering investigation of the application of TBCs in diesel
engines was conducted by Kamo et al. [2]. Thermal insulating
materials such as silicon nitride were used as TBCs to cover the
surfaces of the combustion chamber components, which resulted
in a 7% improvement in performance. Experimental results from
Imdat [3] indicate that the use of TBCs in diesel engines prevents
excessive heat loss during the combustion process by reducing the
heat loss to the engine's cooling system. This leads to an increased
combustion temperature and a slightly higher effective efficiency
compared with the standard case of no applied TBCs. When the
engine was coated with ceramic materials, effective efficiency
increased from 32% to 34% at medium load and from 37% to 39% at
full load. Ekrem et al. [4] stated that a reduction of nearly 6% in
brake specific fuel consumption and a 40% reduction of emission
could be achieved through the application of the TBCs. Further,
applications of TBC in spark ignition engines improved the working
performance and emission characteristics. Insulation of combus-
tion chamber components can be a useful means for improving

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.07.278
0925-8388/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
442 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450
performance, fuel economy, and exhaust emissions of spark igni-
tion engines. With a partially coated ceramic piston, a maximum
decrease of 43.2% in hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from the spark
ignition engine could be achieved, compared with the standard
engine [5,6].
Increasing in-cylinder combustion temperature is an effective
way to increase thermal efficiency and reduce exhaust emissions.
Simultaneously, it leads to a higher thermal load on combustion
chamber components such as pistons, cylinders, rings, liners and
cylinder heads. It is clear that the application of TBC is an effective
means of providing higher combustion temperatures and reducing
the substrate temperature which protects the combustion chamber
components from thermal fatigue [7]. It has been suggested that
the maximum surface temperature of the ceramic coated pistons
can be improved by approximately 48% for the aluminum-silicon
(AlSi) alloy piston and 35% for the steel piston [8,9]. The surface
temperature of the functionally graded material coated AlSi piston
was 28% higher than that of the uncoated AlSi piston and 17%
higher than that of the uncoated steel piston. Meanwhile, results
show the temperature of the metallic substrate is clearly lower than
that of the conventional piston.
Coatings of heat insulation materials used in internal combus-
tion engines must have characteristics including high temperature
strength, high expansion coefficient, low friction, good thermal
shock resistance, light weight and durability. Currently, partially
stabilized zirconia (PSZ) is the most widely investigated TBC
ceramic material. Zirconia (ZrO2) has been stabilized by different
kinds of oxides such as Y2O3, MgO, CaO, CeO2, Sc2O3 and In2O3. In
addition, Y2O3 partially stabilized zirconia (PYSZ) has been empir-
ically found to be most suitable when applied as a thermal barrier
coating material, as it possesses a suite of desirable properties. PYSZ
has a low thermal conductivity at elevated temperature (about
2.3 W/m
C at 1000
C) and a high melting point of 2700
C. These
factors make it suitable for providing good thermal insulation and
protecting high-temperature applications of combustion chamber
components. Further, it has a high thermal expansion coefficient of
9e11.5  106/
C and a high elastic modulus of 50 GPa which helps
alleviate stresses arising from the thermal expansion mismatch
between the ceramic top-coat and the underlying metal. The
hardness of PYSZ is 14 GPa, preventing erosion and foreign body
impacts. Thus, PYSZ is resistant to in-cylinder emissions and hot
corrosion [10,11].
PYSZ exists as three different polymorphs (monoclinic, tetrag-
onal, and cubic) each having different compositions and tempera-
ture characteristics. The addition of 6e8% by weight of Y2O3
stabilizes the tetragonal phase (6-8PYSZ) - the most desirable phase
for TBC applications. It is a variation of the tetragonal phase which
does not undergo a martensitic transformation. Therefore, 6-8PYSZ
is more stable and is frequently selected as a TBC material [11,12].
With the development of nanomaterials and nanotechnology,
the properties of materials will be improved with material particles
being refined down to the nanometer scale [11,12]. Compared with
the conventional size, the Nano PYSZ has a higher specific heat
capacity, a 3-folde6-fold increase in the material plasticity and a 2-
fold increase in the expansion coefficient which makes Nano PYSZ
better matched with the metal substrate. Moreover, the phase
transition temperature of Nano PYSZ is greatly changed and the
coating failure caused by phase transition is reduced. The bonding
strength between the coating and the metal substrate is strength-
ened. Thus, the working stability of the coating is increased. The
microstructure and properties of the Nano PYSZ coating are much
better than those of conventional coatings [13,14].
Additionally, the gradual increases in energy demands and
environmental pollution have driven researchers toward alterna-
tive fuels, gradually replacing conventional fuels. Natural gas has
received increasing attention due to its attractive features such as
rich resource availability and cleaner emissions. Investigations
show that compared with the emissions from gasoline and diesel
engines, emissions from the natural gas engine of NOx can be
reduced by 80%, CO2 by 30%, CO by 70% and HC by 30% [15,16].
In recent years, due to the advantages of natural gas, which is
regarded as one of the most important alternative fuels, the
development and application of the natural gas engine has received
considerable attention. However, in the actual development and
application of the natural gas engine, it is shown that the thermal
load of the natural gas engine is higher than that for conventional
internal combustion engines and the thermal load of combustion
chamber components such as the piston and cylinder are also much
higher. At present, most natural gas engines are variant models,
transformed from diesel or gasoline engine prototypes. Compared
with the conventional diesel and gasoline engines, the working
process of the natural gas engine has some obvious differences. The
ignition point of natural gas is 650
C, which is higher than diesel oil
and gasoline fuel. The combustion rate of natural gas is low
resulting in higher exhaust temperatures after the combustion of
natural gas. Diesel oil and gasoline are oily fuels which have good
lubrication performance, while the lubrication performance of
natural gas is poor. Being a gaseous fuel, natural gas does not
possess the in-cylinder gasification endothermic effect of liquid
fuels such as diesel oil and gasoline. Due to these factors, compared
with the diesel engine or gasoline engine prototype, in-cylinder gas
temperature and the exhaust temperature of the natural gas engine
are higher, with the result that temperature and thermal load of
heated combustion chamber components are higher. The high-
temperature thermal load of the natural gas engine piston is
particularly serious.
The aluminum alloy material used in the design of engine pis-
tons has good plasticity and can withstand greater stress. However,
the high temperature carrying capacity of the aluminum alloy
piston is limited and it cannot withstand temperatures that are too
high. The high temperature and thermal load on the piston place
serious restrictions on the development of the natural gas engine.
Further, the TBCs can provide thermal fatigue protection for the
metallic combustion chamber components. In this study, to provide
thermal fatigue protection of the aluminum alloy piston of the
natural gas engine, TBC technology is applied to the piston of the
natural gas engine and Nano PYSZ ceramic thermal barrier coatings
piston is designed. The effects of Nano ceramic TBCs on the tem-
perature field distribution and thermal load on the piston of the
natural gas engine are investigated using the finite element method
(FEM).
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Problem statement
The aluminum alloy material used in the design of engine pis-
tons has good plasticity enabling the piston to withstand greater
stress. However, the aluminum alloy piston cannot withstand too
high temperature. This study presents the results when the
aluminum alloy piston of a natural gas engine is coated with a Nano
ceramic thermal barrier to provide thermal fatigue protection. As
shown in Fig. 1, the aluminum alloy piston was used as the substrate
and a Nano ceramic thermal barrier coating was applied to its top
surface, fully covering the area of the piston that is exposed to high
temperature. This greatly improved the high-temperature stability
of the piston. The toughness of the aluminum alloy material en-
sures that it can withstand high mechanical loads. Therefore, the
requirements of withstanding both high-temperature thermal load
and high mechanical load are both met, while simultaneously
 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450
Fig. 1. Applied coating on a Piston of Natural gas engine and Thermal barrier coating thickness.
improving the performance of the piston and the natural gas
engine.
This study uses a two-layer structure TBC system. The first layer
is a bond coating comprising a 100 mm thick NiCoCrAlY compound.
The second layer (or top coating) comprises a 400 mm thick Nano 8-
PYSZ ceramic (Fig. 1).
In the preparation of thermal barrier coatings, the plasma
spraying method is widely used. The plasma spraying equipment is
simple, the operation is flexible, the preparation is more efficient
and it is suitable for most thermal barrier coating materials [17,18].
In this research, the Nano thermal barrier coatings were pre-
pared by the plasma spraying technology using the equipment
shown in Fig. 2. During the coating processes, an atmospheric
plasma spray coating system was employed which worked as an
automatic power unit.
Prior to spraying of the plasma coating, the surface of the sub-
strate workpiece needs to have impurities removed from the sur-
face and the material surface then made coarse. The surface is
activated by increasing the surface free energy, increasing the
surface area of the spraying particle adhesion. In this process, the
surface of the aluminum alloy piston is cleaned with acetone so-
lution to remove oil in an ultrasonic cleaning machine. The top
surface of the aluminum alloy piston is then treated by sand
blasting to increase the roughness. Finally, the surface of the piston
is cleaned with ethanol and dried to ensure a clean surface.
After treating the substrate, coatings were sprayed plasma using
Fig. 2. Plasma spray equipment.
443
a technique where a stream of molten ceramic particles is depos-
ited on the top surface of the aluminum alloy piston. Fig. 3 shows
the plasma coating process and Table 1 shows the spraying pa-
rameters used for coatings. A primary gas of argon and a secondary
gas of hydrogen were involved.
In the process of coating, a bonding material, NiCoCrAlY, is
applied to the top surface of the aluminum alloy piston. The
ceramic material (Nano 8-PYPSZ) is then applied to the bond layer,
forming the top ceramic coat. The Nano 8-PYSZ powder particles,
varying in size between 10 nm and 30 nm, coalesce to form
20 mme85 mm spherical particles.
NiCoCrAlY powder and PYSZ were selected as the most appro-
priate interface element material and ceramic layer material
respectively for the piston. In-cylinder gas of an internal combus-
tion engine contains components of SOx and NOx, which make
stabilizers of MgO and CaO precipitate from the partially stabilized
zirconia in conditions of high-temperature and water, thereby
losing the stabilizing effect [19e21]. The addition of Y2O3 can
provide a good stabilizing effect over a long period of time. Previous
studies have shown that the 6-8PYSZ ceramic coating has the best
thermal shock resistance and the longest service life [22e24].
Properties of the aluminum alloy and coating materials are shown
in Table 2.
2.2. Mathematical formulation
The heat transfer process of the natural gas engine piston fol-
lows the Fourier law of heat conduction [25,26]. The thermal
behavior of the piston is governed by the classical heat conduction
equation, which is expressed in Cartesian co-ordinates as




vT v vT v vT v vT
rc ¼ lx þ ly þ lz þF (1)
vt vx vx vy vy vz vz
where r is the density, c is the specific heat, T is the temperature, t is
the time, l is the thermal conductivity, and F is the source sink rate
of heat in a domain.
The aluminum alloy material of the piston is assumed to be
isotropic, hence lx, ly and lz can be assumed equal. Moreover, the
piston itself does not produce heat. The heat conduction of the
piston could be regarded as a homogeneous heat conduction
problem, where the source sink rate of heat in a domain is zero,
F ¼ 0. Therefore, Eq. (1) can be simplified as
444 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450

Fig. 3. The plasma coating process.

Table 1
Spraying parameters used for coatings. TjG ¼ f ðx; y; z; tÞ (5)
NiCoCrAlY PYSZ
vT
Thickness of coating(mm) 100 400 k j ¼q (6)
Voltage(V) 65 75 vn G
Current(A) 550 600
Primary gas, Ar(L/min) 35 40 vT  
k j ¼ b T  Tf (7)
vn G
Secondary gas, H2(L/min) 6 8
G
Powder feed rate(g/min) 60 40
Spray distance(mm) 120 110
where G is the boundary, k is the thermal conductivity, q is a pre-
scribed flux (W/m2), b is the heat transfer coefficient for convection
(W/m2
C) and Tf is the ambient temperature.
! In addition to the boundary conditions, the initial condition
vT l v2 T v2 T v2 T must be determined to enable analysis of heat transfer. It is given
¼ þ þ (2)
vt rc vx2 vy2 vz2 by:

During the working process of the engine, the temperature of
the piston changes with the periodic action of the in-cylinder gas.
However, when the engine is working stably, only the temperature
between the top surface and the interior (1~2 mm) of the piston
crown changes periodically with the engine operation. The tem-
perature variation for the rest of the cylinder is very small, main-
taining stability [27,28]. Therefore, assuming the temperature of
the piston is stable, the piston temperature distribution can be
generally considered as steady and can be expressed as
vT
¼0
vt
When Eq. (3) and Eq. (2) are combined, Eq. (4) is obtained. It
defines the distribution of the steady-state temperature field of the
piston.
! ! ! thermal boundary conditions are determined by the authors' past
v2 T v2 T v2 T
þ þ ¼0
vx2 vy2 vz2
To obtain values in the temperature field of the piston, the
definite solution condition for the equation needs to be set. For the
temperature field of the piston, the effect of radiation is so slight
that it could be ignored. This simplifies the analysis. At the
boundary of the piston, the essential and natural boundary condi-
tion are determined as
Tðx; y; z; 0Þ ¼ Tin ðx; y; zÞ (8)
2.3. Thermal analysis by finite element method
To analyze the temperature field of the natural gas engine TBC
piston, a numerical analysis method is employed. 3-D finite
element thermal analyses are carried out on both a conventional
aluminum alloy piston and a ceramic coated piston. The finite
element mesh of the piston model using ANSYS code is shown in
(3) Fig. 4. In the thermal analysis, 275,400 hexahedron elements are
used.
Thermal boundaries of the piston include the combustion
chamber, the region between the piston and liner, rings, cooling-oil
cavity, skirt and the inside of the piston. In this investigation,
experience and similar works from the literature.
(4) The heat transfer inside the internal combustion engine is
complex. To analyze the temperature field of the piston, the ther-
mal boundary conditions need to be determined. In this study, the
third kind of heat transfer boundary conditions is used to calculate
the steady-state temperature field of the piston, which includes the
heat transfer coefficient and the medium temperature. Currently,
the boundary conditions are generally calculated by using empirical
and semi-empirical formulas.

Table 2
Properties of piston alloy and coatings.

Material Young's modulus Poisson's ratio Thermal conductivity Density(kg/m3) Thermal expansion
(GPa) (W/m
C) 106 (1/
C)

PYSZ(ZrO2-8%Y2O3) 205 0.25 2.12 6010 11.5  106

NiCoCrAlY 90 0.27 16.1 7870 12  106
Aluminum alloy 71 0.32 155 2700 21  106
 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450 445

2am 1:5
ar ¼
e0:1ð2:54Þ
r

1:5
(13)
1 þ e0:1ð Þ
r
2:54

When r  N,

2am 2Nr 1:5

ar ¼
1:5
e0:1ð 2:54 Þ (14)
0:1ð2:54
r
Þ
1þe

where r is the radial length to the symmetry line and N is the dis-
tance between the symmetry line and the extreme point of the heat
transfer coefficient.

(ii) Heat transfer coefficient in the piston ring region and skirt

Fig. 4. The finite element mesh. The heat transfer in the piston ring region is influenced by the
thermal conductivity between the piston and rings, heat transfer
among the piston rings, oil film and cylinder, and the convective
(i) Heat transfer coefficient and the gas temperature on the top
heat transfer between the cylinder and the cooling water. The
surface of the piston
empirical formula provided in the reference is used to estimate this
part of the calculation [28,29]. The heat transfer coefficient of the
In the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine,
piston rings in region a1 can be expressed as:
both the in-cylinder instant gas temperature Tg and the instant gas
heat transfer coefficient ag vary with time. The Tg can be estimated 1
using the in-cylinder gas pressure [28,29]. The Wahlberg formula is a1 ¼ a b c 1
(15)
generally used to estimate ag, which is shown as equation (9): l1 þ l2 þ l3 þ aw

The heat transfer coefficient of the piston skirt a2 can be

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi expressed as:
ag ¼ K0 3 Cm $ Pg Tg (9)
1
where ag is the instantaneous heat transfer coefficient; Tg is the a2 ¼ b b 1
(16)
instantaneous gas temperature; Pg is the instantaneous pressure of l2 þ l3 þ aw
the in-cylinder gas; Cm is the instantaneous velocity of the piston; The heat transfer coefficient at the top land of the piston a3 can
K0 is a modifying factor. be expressed as:
In a thermodynamic cycle of internal combustion engine, the
average heat transfer coefficient am and the average gas tempera- 1
ture Tm on the top surface of the piston can be calculated according
a3 ¼ Dn b 1
(17)
l1 þ l3 þ aw
to equations (10) and (11), respectively:
where l1 is the thermal conductivity coefficient of the piston ring;
Z4p l2 is the thermal conductivity coefficient of the oil film; l3 is the
ag d4
am ¼ (10) thermal conductivity coefficient of the cylinder; a is the radial
4p thickness of the piston ring; b is the thickness of the oil film; c is the
0
thickness of the cylinder jacket; aw is the heat transfer coefficient at
the cooling water gallery of the cylinder; Dn is the thickness of the
Z 4p
  clearance between the piston ring and the cylinder.
ag Tg d4
0
Tm ¼ Z 4p (11) (ⅲ) Heat transfer coefficient at the inner cooling-oil cavity of the
ag d4 piston
0

where 4 is the crank angle. In this study, the piston has an inner cooling-oil cavity, and the
The top surface of the piston is in direct contact with the gas and heat transfer boundary conditions of the cooling-oil cavity can be
is subjected to a strong thermal load. Using both the dynamometer determined by using empirical formulas (18) [28,29]:
diagram and an empirical formula, the average gas temperature on
0:24
the top surface of the piston is estimated to be 890
C. D1
Nuf ¼ 0:497R0:57
ef Prf0:29 (18)
In this paper, the Seale formula is used to calculate the change of b
the heat transfer coefficient in the radial direction of piston on the
top surface, equation (12): lf Nuf
a* ¼ (19)
D1
1:5
y ¼ e0:1r (12)
where Ref is the Reynolds number; Prf is the Prandtl number; Nuf is
Based on equation (12), the local heat transfer coefficient ar in the Nusselt number; D1 is the equivalent diameter of the inner
the radial direction of piston top surface can be obtained.When cooling-oil cavity; a* is the heat transfer coefficient of the cooling-
r < N, oil cavity; b is the average height of the cooling-oil cavity; lf is the
446 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450

thermal conductivity coefficient of the cooling oil. 150
C and 120
C with a convection coefficient of 2000 W/m2
C,
2000 W/m2
C and 2000 W/m2
C respectively. The cooling-oil
(ⅳ) Heat transfer coefficient at the inner surface of the piston cavity is specified as 95
C with a convection coefficient of
skirt 2300 W/m2
C. The temperature of the skirt is defined as 100
C
with a convection coefficient of 450 W/m2
C. The inside of tem-
The bottom of the piston connects the crankcase of the internal perature of the piston is defined as 95
C with convection coeffi-
combustion engine which is filled with air-oil mixture. The heat cient of 800 W/m2
C.
transfer coefficient between the piston and air-oil mixture is
generally obtained by empirical statistics [28,29]. Generally, the
heat transfer coefficient is higher at the top of the inner surface of 3. Result and discussion
the piston skirt and decreases from the top to the bottom. The
temperature at the inner surface of the piston skirt is maintained at The thermal barrier coating piston of the natural gas engine is
approximately 90e100
C [29,30]. shown in Fig. 5. The white material on the top surface of the piston
Thermal boundary conditions of the different elements are is the thermal barrier coating and the cross-section microstructure
shown in Table 3. The temperature of the combustion chamber of of the thermal barrier coating is tested by SEM. Fig. 6 shows SEM
the piston is defined as 650
C with a convection coefficient of results of cross section microstructure of the thermal barrier
820 W/m2
C. The temperature of the region between the piston coating. In Fig. 6 (a), layers of TBCs are tightly bonded and
and lining is assumed to be 220
C with a convection coefficient of boundaries between different layers are clear. The bond layer is
350 W/m2
C. The temperature of rings is estimated to be 180
C, between the ceramic layer and the substrate. In preparation of the
bond layer, the NiCoCrAlY material is fully melted by the high
temperature from the plasma plume. The high velocity of the
Table 3 plasma plume helps spread the coating along the bond layer. The
Thermal boundary conditions. structure of the bond layer is uniform, compact and tightly com-
Thermal boundary conditions Temperature(
C) Convective heat transfer bines the upper and lower layers. Furthermore, due to the good
coefficient (W/m2
C) pretreatment of the piston surface before spraying, the roughness
Combustion chamber 890 820 of the aluminum alloy piston surface increases the bonding area
The region between piston 220 350 between the bond layer and the substrate, improving the bonding
and Liner strength between the bond layer and the substrate surface.
The first ring 180 2000 In the ceramic layer, as shown in Fig. 6, the Nano 8PYSZ material
The second ring 150 2000
is compact, but there are pores and micro-cracks in the internal
The third ring 120 2000
Cooling-oil cavity 95 2300 structure of the coating. The sizes of the pores are small, and the
Skirt 100 450 outer contours of the pores are smooth. The cavities formed by the
Inside of piston 95 800 pores are closed without penetrating the layer.
In the process of plasma spraying, some large aggregates were
not sufficiently melted and the internal porosity of aggregates was
still maintained. When covered on the surface of the workpiece, the
pores are not completely filled by the molten liquid, thus pores
remain in the coating. As the particle size of the nanometer ceramic
material is small and the texture is even and dense, the pores are
also of small size and closed cavity shape. The probability of
forming a larger size penetrating pore is small. Due to the small
closed pores, the thermal conductivity of the coating is reduced,
which improves the thermal insulation capacity.
Micro-cracks in the ceramic layer are caused by stress concen-
tration during cooling of the coating while plasma spraying. As the
nanometer material has superior structure performance, the sizes
of the micro-cracks in the coating are relatively small, avoiding
Fig. 5. Thermal barrier coatings piston. coarse cracks. In particular, there is no coarse cracking in a direction

Fig. 6. Microstructure of thermal barrier coatings (SEM).

 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450 447

Fig. 7. Temperature field of TBCs piston.

approximately perpendicular to the interfacial direction of the difference between the bond layer and the substrate). The
coating and the substrate. The existence of micro-cracks can sub- maximum temperature of the substrate is much lower than the
stantially reduce cracking and failure caused by the deformation of operating temperature limit of the aluminum alloy material and the
the thermal barrier coating during the working process. thermal load of the aluminum alloy piston substrate is in an
To investigate the effect of thermal barrier coatings in the nat- acceptable range.
ural gas engine piston, numerical analyses were performed to To further analyze the temperature distribution of the thermal
evaluate the temperature field of the conventional and the thermal barrier coatings piston, the temperature distribution on the path
barrier coated piston. 3-D thermal analyses were performed by was carried out for each layer of the TBCs piston. Fig. 7 shows that
using ANSYS code which is based on the finite element method the high temperature load for each layer is located on the top
(FEM). The temperature field of TBCs piston is shown in Fig. 7(a)-
(d). Fig. 7 (a) shows the temperature distribution on the TBCs pis-
ton, Fig. 7 (b) shows the temperature distribution on the aluminum
alloy substrate of TBCs piston, Fig. 7 (c) shows the temperature
distribution on the bond layer of TBCs piston and Fig. 7 (d) shows
the temperature distribution on the ceramic layer of the TBCs pis-
ton. The crown of the TBCs piston takes the bulk of the heat from
the gas. The temperature of the top and the combustion chamber is
high, with the highest temperature located in the piston throat. The
temperature gradually decreases from the top to the bottom of the
piston. The temperature of the piston ring groove and skirt is much
lower than that of the piston crown.
In all parts of the piston coated with the thermal barrier, the
temperature of ceramic layer is highest. The highest temperature of
the ceramic layer (498.39
C, within the normal operating tem-
perature range of ceramic material), is also the highest temperature
of the TBCs piston, is located at the combustion chamber throat. The
bond layer also withstands high temperature load with the highest
temperature also located in the combustion chamber throat
(approximately 305.23
C, which is much lower than the highest
temperature of ceramic surface layer). This suggests there is a large
temperature gradient in the ceramic layer. The highest temperature
of the substrate is also located at the combustion chamber throat
(approximately 302.64
C, which shows a small temperature Fig. 8. Path OM.
448 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450
Fig. 9. Temperature distribution along the path OM.
surface of each layer and on the surface area of the combustion
chamber. The path OM, shown as the blue dotted line in Fig. 8, is
selected for analysis. This path lies along the radial, starting from
the center point O of the combustion chamber and ending at the
outer edge point M of the piston top on the top surface of the
ceramic layer, the bond layer and the substrate.
Temperatures and their variation along the path OM on the top
surface of the ceramic layer, the bond layer and the substrate are
plotted in Fig. 9. Along the path OM, temperature distribution
trends of the three layers are similar. At the same x-coordinate
position, temperature values of the ceramic layer are the highest
and temperature values of the bond layer are slightly higher than
the aluminum alloy substrate. There is a large temperature differ-
ence between the top surface of the ceramic layer and that of the
bond layer, for which the maximum value is close to 200
C. It
Fig. 10. Temperature field of TBCs piston and conventional piston.
shows a large temperature gradient on the ceramic layer demon-
strating that it has a good thermal insulation effect. The tempera-
ture on the top surface of the bond layer is close to that of the
substrate, and the temperature gradient in the bond layer is small.
This further indicates that heat insulation is mainly provided by the
ceramic layer of the thermal barrier coatings.
To analyze the influence of thermal barrier coatings on the
thermal load carrying capacity of the piston, the temperature field
of the TBCs piston is compared with that of a conventional
aluminum alloy piston. Fig. 10(a)-(c) show the temperature field
distribution of the TBCs piston, the aluminum alloy substrate of the
TBCs piston and the conventional aluminum alloy piston, respec-
tively. The maximum temperature of the TBCs piston is 498.39
C,
the highest temperature of the aluminum alloy substrate is
302.64
C and the maximum temperature value of the aluminum
alloy piston is 345.255
C, all of which are located in the throat area
of the combustion chamber. The distributions of the high temper-
ature regions of the TBCs piston and the conventional aluminum
alloy piston are consistent. The temperature field of the aluminum
alloy substrate of the TBCs piston is similar to that of the conven-
tional aluminum alloy piston. The temperature of the aluminum
alloy substrate covered by TBCs is much lower than that of the
aluminum alloy piston which indicates that the design of the TBCs
piston greatly reduces the temperature of the aluminum alloy
piston. The heat insulation effect of the thermal barrier coating can
be clearly seen. The heat of the in-cylinder gas transmission to the
TBCs piston is much less than that of a conventional aluminum
alloy piston. Due to the thermal barrier coatings, the heat trans-
ferred to the piston is greatly reduced and thus heat dissipation of
in-cylinder gas is decreased which increases the thermal efficiency
and performance of the natural gas engine.
Comparing the temperature distribution of the aluminum alloy
substrate to that of the conventional aluminum alloy piston along
the path OM (Fig. 11), the highest temperature of the aluminum
alloy substrate and the conventional aluminum alloy piston are
located at the same area, the throat of the combustion chamber.
With the TBCs treatment, the temperature of the aluminum alloy
substrate is significantly lower than the conventional aluminum
alloy piston and the temperature difference is clearly seen, up to
 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450
Fig. 11. Temperature distribution along path OM on the TBC piston and conventional
piston.
30
Ce43
C. In particular, at the center of the combustor chamber,
the maximum temperature difference is more than 40
C. This
shows that the plasma spraying Nano ceramic thermal barrier
coatings can effectively reduce the temperature of the aluminum
alloy substrate, protect the substrate and help the piston to improve
the ability to withstand high temperatures.
4. Conclusions
The design of the natural gas engine piston with Nano ceramic
thermal barrier coatings which possess low thermal conductivity
properties has great potential to improve the thermal load carrying
capacity of the piston, reduce in-cylinder heat dissipation and
improve the thermal efficiency of natural gas engine.
Comparative analyses were conducted between the tempera-
ture field of the Nano 8PYSZ ceramic thermal barrier coatings pis-
ton and the conventional uncoated aluminum alloy piston. The
following results were obtained: the highest temperature appeared
at the crown of the piston and the maximum temperature value of
the TBC piston occurred at the throat of the piston combustion
chamber, which is the same for the conventional piston. Therefore,
careful attention must be paid to the design of this area.
The maximum temperature on the substrate of the TBC piston is
about 302.64
C, significantly lower than the 345.255
C of the
conventional piston. Structural behaviors of the conventional metal
materials are varied negatively with temperature. With the design
of the TBCs piston, the temperature of the aluminum alloy substrate
is reduced, and strength and resistance to deformation of the ma-
terials are improved. Thus, the thermal load carrying capacity and
the thermal strength performance of the piston are improved.
Moreover, the load of the cooling system decreases accordingly.
In addition, the maximum temperature value of the TBCs piston
is significantly larger than that of the conventional piston,
improving approximately 153
C and 44% at the crown. It is clear
that a higher combustion temperature is provided by the applica-
tion of the TBCs to the piston and that the thermal efficiency of the
449
natural gas engine is increased.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express appreciation to Rong Li in the
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies (University of
Sydney), Prof. Xudong Cheng and PhD student Qingyu Li in the
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Syn-
thesis and Processing (Wuhan University of Technology). The
Project is supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities (2017IVA025)”, “the Key Laboratory of Marine
Power Engineering & Technology (Wuhan University of Technol-
ogy), Ministry of Transport” and “China Scholarship Council (No.
201706955097)”.
References
[1] S. Salman, R. Kose, L. Urtekin, F. Findik, An investigation of different ceramic
coating thermal properties, Mater. Des. 27 (2006) 585e590.
[2] R. Kamo, D. Assanis, W. Bryzik, Thin Thermal Barrier Coatings for Engines, SAE
Technical Paper, 1989, 890143.
[3] Imdat Taymaz, The effect of thermal barrier coatings on diesel engine per-
formance, Surf. Coating. Technol. 201 (2007) 5249e5252.
[4] Ekrem Büyükkaya, Tahsin Engin, Muhammet Cerit, Effects of thermal barrier
coating on gas emissions and performance of a LHR engine with different
injection timings and valve adjustments, Energy Convers. Manag. 47 (2006)
1298e1310.
[5] M. Cerit, V. Ayhan, A. Parlak, H. Yasar, Thermal analysis of a partially ceramic
coated piston: effect on cold start HC emission in a spark ignition engine, Appl.
Therm. Eng. 31 (2011) 336e341.
[6] Muhammet Cerit, Thermo mechanical analysis of a partially ceramic coated
piston used in an SI engine, Surf. Coating. Technol. 205 (2011) 3499e3505.
[7] Muhammet Cerit, Mehmet Coban, Temperature and thermal stress analyses of
a ceramic-coated aluminum alloy piston used in a diesel engine, Int. J. Therm.
Sci. 77 (2014) 11e18.
[8] Ekrem Büyükkaya, Muhammet Cerit, Thermal analysis of a ceramic coating
diesel engine piston using 3-D finite element method, Surf. Coating. Technol.
202 (2007) 398e402.
[9] Ekrem Büyükkaya, Thermal analysis of functionally graded coating AlSi alloy
and steel pistons, Surf. Coating. Technol. 202 (2008) 3856e3865.
[10] Nitin P. Padture, Maurice Gell, Eric H. Jordan, Thermal barrier coatings for gas-
turbine engine applications, Science 296 (2002) 280e284.
[11] X.Q. Cao, R. Vassen, D. Stoever, Ceramic materials for thermal barrier coatings,
J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 24 (2004) 1e10.
[12] Z.H. Xu, L.M. He, R.D. Mu, X.H. Zhong, Y.F. Zhang, J.F. Zhang, X.Q. Cao, Double-
ceramic-layer thermal barrier coatings of La2Zr2O7/YSZ deposited by electron
beam-physical vapor deposition, J. Alloys Compd. 473 (2009) 509e515.
[13] A. Suresh, M.J. Mayo, W.D. Porter, Thermodynamics of the tetragonal-to-
monoclinic phase transformation in fine and nanocrystalline yttria-
stabilized zirconia powders, J. Mater. Res. 18 (2003) 2912e2921.
[14] H. Chen, C.X. Ding, Nanostructured zirconia coating prepared by atmospheric
plasma spraying, Surf. Coating. Technol. 150 (2002) 31e36.
[15] T. Korakianitis, A.M. Namasivayam, R.J. Crookes, Natural-gas fueled spark-
ignition (SI) and compression-ignition (CI) engine performance and emis-
sions, Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 37 (2011) 89e112.
[16] Muk Cho Haeng, Bang-Quan He, Spark ignition natural gas engines-A review,
Energy Convers. Manag. 48 (2007) 608e618.
[17] L. Wang, Y. Wang, X.G. Sun, J.Q. He, Z.Y. Pan, C.H. Wang, A novel structure
design towards extremely low thermal conductivity for thermal barrier
coatings-experimental and mathematical study, Mater. Des. 35 (2012)
505e517.
[18] C. Zhu, P. Li, A. Javed, G.Y. Liang, P. Xiao, An investigation on the micro-
structure and oxidation behavior of laser remelted air plasma sprayed thermal
barrier coatings, Surf. Coating. Technol. 206 (2012) 3739e3746.
[19] G.L. Borman, K. Nishiwaki, Internal combustion engine heat transfer, Prog.
Energy Combust. Sci. 13 (1987) 1e46.
[20] T. Morel, R. Keribar, P. Blumberg, E. Fort, Examination of Key Issues in Low
Heat Rejection Engines, SAE Technical Paper, 1986, 860316.
[21] P. Popp, M. Baum, Heat Transfer and Pollutant Formation Mechanisms in
Insulated Combustion Chambers, SAE Technical Paper, 1995, 952387.
[22] R. Vaben, M.O. Jarligo, T. Steinke, et al., Overview on advanced thermal barrier
coatings, Surf. Coating. Technol. 205 (2010) 938e942.
[23] C. Ren, Y.D. He, D.R. Wang, Preparation and characteristics of three-layer YSZ-
(YSZ/Al2O3)-YSZ TBCs, Appl. Surf. Sci. 257 (2011) 6837e6842.
[24] R.A. Miller, J.L. Smialek, R.G. Garlick, Phase distributions in plasma-sprayed
zirconia-yttria, Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull. 62 (1983) 1355e1358.
[25] Gary Borman, Kazuie Nishiwaki, Internal-combustion engine heat transfer,
Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 13 (1987) 1e46.
450 Z. Yao, Z. Qian / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 768 (2018) 441e450

[26] Ravindra Prasad, N.K. Samria, Transient heat transfer analysis in an internal
combustion engine piston, Comput. Struct. 34 (1990) 787e793.
[27] Song-CharngKong YuanhongLi, Coupling conjugate heat transfer with in-
cylinder combustion modeling for engine simulation, Int. J. Heat Mass Tran.
54 (2011) 2467e2478.
[28] Irimescu Adrian, Convective heat transfer equation for turbulent flow in tubes
applied to internal combustion engines operated under motored conditions,
Appl. Therm. Eng. 50 (2013) 536e545.
[29] Xiqun Lu, Li Quan, Wenping Zhang, Yibin Guo, He Tao, Dequan Zou, Thermal
analysis on piston of marine diesel engine, Appl. Therm. Eng. 50 (2013)
168e176.
[30] S. Vedharaj, R. Vallinayagam, W.M. Yang, S.K. Chou, K.J.E. Chua, P.S. Lee,
Experimental and finite element analysis of a coated diesel engine fueled by
cashew nut shell liquid biodiesel, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 53 (2014) 259e268.