Journal of Engineering and Science

Vol. 01, Special Issue 01, July 2016

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF I.C. ENGINE

PISTON AND PISTON-RING ON
COMPOSITE MATERIAL USING CREO
AND ANSYS SOFTWARE
K. Sathish Kumar
UG Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, United Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore – 641020.
Email: sathishkuppuraj@gmail.com

Abstract - In this Paper the stress distribution is evaluated on the four stroke engine piston by using FEA. The finite element
analysis is performed by using FEA software. The couple field analysis is carried out to calculate stresses and deflection due
to thermal loads and gas pressure. These stresses will be calculated for two different materials. The results are compared for
all the two materials and the best one is proposed. The materials used in this project are aluminium alloy, and SiC reinforced
ZrB2 composite material. In this project the natural frequency and Vibration mode of the piston and rings were also obtained
and its vibration characteristics are analyzed. With using computer aided design (CAD), CREO software the structural model
of a piston will be developed. Furthermore, the finite element analysis performed with using software ANSYS. SiC reinforced
ZrB2 : Silicon carbide reinforced Zirconium diboride is a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) material is also used.

Keywords - Stress distribution, Four stroke engine piston, Finite element analysis, Aluminium alloy and SiC, Natural
frequency, Vibration mode, Computer aided design (CAD), Ceramic matrix composite (CMC) material, Ansys.

I. INTRODUCTION
Automobile components are in great demand these days because of increased use of automobiles. The increased
demand is due to improved performance and reduced cost of these components. R&D and testing engineers should
develop critical components in shortest possible time to minimize launch time for new products. This necessitates
understanding of new technologies and quick absorption in the development of new products. A piston is a
component of reciprocating IC-engines. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-
tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from expanding gas in the cylinder to the
crankshaft via a piston rod and/or connecting rod. As an important part in an engine, piston endures the cyclic gas
pressure and the inertial forces at work, and this working condition may cause the fatigue damage of piston, such as
piston side wear, piston head/crown cracks and so on. The investigations indicate that the greatest stress appears on
the upper end of the piston and stress concentration is one of the mainly reason for fatigue failure. This paper
describes the stress distribution on piston of internal combustion engine by using FEA. The FEA is performed by
CAD and CAE software. The main objectives are to investigate and analyze the thermal stress and mechanical stress
distribution of piston at the real engine condition during combustion process. The paper describes the FEA technique
to predict the higher stress and critical region on the component. With using CREO 2.0 software the structural model
of a piston will be developed. Using ANSYS V14.5 software, simulation and stress analysis is performed.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

An optimized piston which is lighter and stronger is coated with zirconium for bio-fuel. In this paper[1], the
coated piston undergone a Von misses test by using ANSYS for load applied on the top. Analysis of the stress
distribution was done on various parts of the coated piston for finding the stresses due to the gas pressure and

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Vol. 01, Special Issue 01, July 2016

thermal variations. Vonmisses stress is increased by 16% and deflection is increased after optimization. But all the
parameters are well with in design consideration. Design, Analysis and optimization of piston [2] which is stronger,
lighter with minimum cost and with less time. Since the design and weight of the piston influence the engine
performance. Analysis of the stress distribution in the various parts of the piston to know the stresses due to the gas
pressure and thermal variations using with Ansys. With the definite-element analysis software, a three-dimensional
definite-element analysis [3] has been carried out to the gasoline engine piston. Considering the thermal boundary
condition, the stress and the deformation distribution conditions of the piston under the coupling effect of the
thermal load and explosion pressure have been calculated, thus providing reference for design improvement. Results
show that, the main cause of the piston safety, the piston deformation and the great stress is the temperature, so itis
feasible to further decrease the piston temperature with structure optimization. This paper [4] involves simulation of
a 2-stroke 6S35ME marine diesel engine piston to determine its temperature field, thermal, mechanical and coupled
thermal-mechanical stress. The distribution and magnitudes of the afore-mentioned strength parameters are useful in
design, failure analysis and optimization of the engine piston. The piston model was developed in solid-works and
imported into ANSYS for preprocessing, loading and post processing. Material model chosen was 10-node
tetrahedral thermal solid 87. The simulation parameters used in this paper were piston material, combustion
pressure, inertial effects and temperature. This work [5] describes the stress distribution of the piston by using finite
element method (FEM). FEM is performed by using computer aided engineering (CAE) software. The main
objective of this project is to investigate and analyze the stress distribution of piston at the actual engine condition
during combustion process.. The report describes the mesh optimization by using FEM technique to predict the
higher stress and critical region on the component. The impact of crown thickness, thickness ofbarrel and piston top
land height on stress distribution and total deformation is monitored during the study[6] of actual four stroke engine
piston. The entire optimization is carried out based on statistical analysisFEA analysis is carried out using ANSYS
for optimum geometry.This paper describes the stress distribution and thermal stresses of three different aluminum
alloys piston by using finite element method (FEM). The parameters used for the simulation are operating gas
pressure, temperature and material properties of piston. The specifications used for the study of these pistons belong
to four stroke single cylinder engine of Bajaj Kawasaki motorcycle.

Fig. 1 : Labeled Image of a Piston

III. PISTON MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Following materials are used for I.C. Engines pistons: Cast iron, Cast Aluminium, cast steel and forged
aluminium. The material used for piston is mainly aluminium alloy. Aluminium pistons can be either cast of forged.
In early years cast iron was almost universal material for pistons because it posses excellent wearing qualities,
coefficient of expansion and genera suitability in manufacture. But due to reduction of weight in reciprocating parts,
the use of aluminium for piston was essential. To obtain equal strength a greater thickness of metal is necessary. But

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Vol. 01, Special Issue 01, July 2016

some of the advantages of the light metal is lost. Aluminium is inferior to cast iron in strength and wearing qualities,
and its greater coefficient of expansion necessities greater clearance in the cylinder to avoid the risk of seizure. The
heat conductivity of aluminium is about thrice that of cast iron this combined with the greater thickness necessary
for strength, enables and aluminium alloy piston to run at much lower temperature than a cast iron as a result
carbonized oil doesn’t form on the underside of the piston, and the crank case therefore keeps cleaner. This cool
running property of aluminium is now recognized as being quite as valuable as its lightness. Indeed; piston are
sometimes made thicker than necessary for strength in order to give improved cooling.

IV. PROBLEM DEFINITION AND METHODOLOGY

In this paper the stress distribution is evaluated on the four stroke engine piston by using FEA. The finite
element analysis is performed by using FEA software. The couple field analysis is carried out to calculate stresses
and deflection due to thermal loads and gas pressure. The materials used in this project are aluminium alloy and SiC
reinforced ZrB2 composite material. In this project the natural frequency and Vibration mode of the piston were also
obtained and its vibration characteristics are analyzed. With using computer aided design (CAD), UNI-GRAPHICS
software the structural model of a piston will be developed. Furthermore, the finite element analysis performed with
using software ANSYS.
The methodology used for doing the analysis is as follows:
 Develop a 3D model from the available 2D drawings of the Piston.
 The 3D model is created using CREO 2.0 software
 The 3D model is converted into parasolid and imported into ANSYS to do couple field analysis.
 The thermal analysis is performed on the piston model with the heat of (160°C-200°C) for Aluminum alloy
material.
 Temperature distribution is plotted from the thermal analysis for Aluminum alloy material.
 Structural analysis is performed by applying temperature distribution from the thermal analysis as body
loads and working pressure of 3.3Mpa to find the stress distribution due to thermal and structural loads for
Aluminum alloy material.
 Plot deflections and stresses for the piston from the above analysis.
 The above analysis is repeated for SiC reinforced ZrB2 composite material.
 Perform modal analysis for all the 2 materials.
 Compare the results for all the 2 materials.

V. MODELING AND ANALYSIS PISTON DESIGN

The piston is designed according to the procedure and specification which are given in machine design and
data hand books. The dimensions are calculated in terms of SI Units. The pressure applied on piston head,
temperatures of various areas of the piston, heat flow, stresses, strains, length, diameter of piston and hole,
thicknesses, etc., parameters are taken into consideration .

A. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR A PISTON

 In designing a piston for an engine, the following points should be taken into consideration:
 It should have enormous strength to withstand the high pressure.
 It should have minimum weight to withstand the inertia forces.
 It should form effective oil sealing in the cylinder.
 It should provide sufficient bearing area to prevent undue wear.
 It should have high speed reciprocation without noise.
 It should be of sufficient rigid construction to withstand thermal and mechanical distortions.
 It should have sufficient support for the piston pin.

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B. ASSUMPTIONS MADE
It is very difficult to exactly model the piston, in which there are still researches are going on to find out
transient thermo elastic behavior of piston during combustion process. There is always a need of some assumptions
to model any complex geometry. These assumptions are made, keeping in mind the difficulties involved in the
theoretical calculation and the importance of the parameters that are taken and those which are ignored. In modeling
we always ignore the things that are of less importance and have little impact on the analysis. The assumptions are
always made depending upon the details and accuracy required in modeling.
1. The assumptions which are made while modeling the process are given below:-
2. The piston material is considered as homogeneous and isotropic.
3. Inertia and body force effects are negligible during the analysis.
4. The piston is stress free before the application of analysis.
5. The analysis is based on pure thermal loading and thus only stress level due to the above said is done the analysis
does not determine the life of the piston.
6. Only ambient air-cooling is taken into account and no forced Convection is taken.
7. The thermal conductivity of the material used for the analysis is uniform throughout.
8. The specific heat of the material used is constant throughout and does not change with temperature.

C. THE PISTON MODEL

The following are the sequence of steps in which the piston is modeled.
 Drawing a half portion of piston.
 Exiting the sketcher .
 Developing the model .
 Creating a hole .

VI. PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

The materials chosen for this work are Aluminum alloy and Silicon carbide reinforced Zirconium diboride
for an internal combustion engine piston. The mechanical properties of alloy and Silicon carbide reinforced
Zirconium diboride are listed in the following table 1

S.No Name of the property Aluminium Alloy SiC reinforced ZrB2

1 Density 2770 kg/m3 2060 kg/m3
2 Coefficient of Thermal Expansion 1 e -06 K-1 5.9 e-06 K-1
3 Youngs Modulus 71e3 mpa 4.86e5 mpa
4 Poissons Ratio 0.33 0.11
5 Ultimate Strength 310 mpa 1070 mpa
6 Specfic Heat 0.13 J/Kgk 500 J/kgk
7 Thermal Conductivity 174 W/mk 93.7 W/mk
8 Yield Strength 280 mpa 930 mpa

Table 1 Material Properties

a. A. Applying Temperatures, Convections and Loads

The piston is divided into the areas defined by a series of grooves for sealing rings. The boundary conditions
for mechanical simulation were defined as the pressure acting on the entire piston head surface (maximum pressure
in the engine cylinder). It is necessary to load certain data on material that refer to both its mechanical and thermal

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Vol. 01, Special Issue 01, July 2016

properties to do the coupled Thermo-mechanical calculations .The temperature load is applied on different areas and
pressure applied on piston head. The regions like piston head and piston ring regions are applied with large amount
of heat (160°C-200°C). The convection values on the piston wall ranges from 232W/mK to 1570W/mK. The
working pressure is 3.3Mpa.

VII. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS STRUCTURAL BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Structural analysis is performed on the piston by applying temperature distribution from the thermal analysis as
body loads using Ansys. Also a pressure of 3.3Mpa on the piston head. As we are coupling thermal analysis with
structural analysis, this analysis is called couple field analysis.

VIII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. FOR PISTON

The results obtained from applying aluminium material for piston are,

Fig 2 : Boundary condition applied for piston Fig 3 : Total Deformation of aluminium piston

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Fig 4: Directional Deformation of aluminium piston Fig 5 : Von – Misses strain of aluminium piston

The results obtained from applying Silicon carbide reinforced Zirconium diboride material for piston are,

Fig 6 : Total Deformation of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Fig 7: Directional Deformation of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston

Fig 8 : Von – Misses strain of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Fig 9 : Thermal Boundary condition applied for piston

The Thermal results obtained from applying aluminium material for piston are,

Fig 10 : Total Heat flex of aluminium piston Fig 11 : Directional Heat flex of aluminium piston

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Fig 12 : Total Heat flex of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Fig 13 : Directional Heat flex of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston

COMPARISON OF RESULT ON STATIC ANALYSIS IN PISTON

Static Analysis Thermal Analysis

Total Directional Von – Misses

piston Deformation deformation strain piston Total Heat Flex Directional Heat Flex
( Y axis ) ( Y Axis )

Aluminium 0.079441 mm 0.0017008 mm 0.00083123

Aluminium 3.6615e-12 3.6163e-12 W/mm2
W/mm2
SiC reinforced 0.057721 mm 0.0012238 mm 0.000062824 SiC
ZrB2 reinforced 1.3177e-12 1.2956e-12 W/mm2
ZrB2 W/mm2

Table 2 : Static analysis of piston Table 3 : Thermal analysis of piston

B. FOR PISTON RING

The results obtained from applying aluminium & SiC reinforced ZrB2 material for piston ring are,

Fig 14 : Total Deformation of aluminium piston Ring Fig 15 : Total Deformation of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Ring

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Vol. 01, Special Issue 01, July 2016

Fig 16: Directional Deformation of aluminium piston Ring Fig 17: Directional Deformation of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Ring

Fig 18 : Von – Misses strain of aluminium piston Ring Fig 19 : Von – Misses strain of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Ring

Fig 20 : Boundary condition applied for piston Ring Fig 21 : Thermal Boundary condition applied for piston Ring

The Thermal results obtained from applying aluminium & SiC reinforced ZrB2 material for piston Ring are,

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Fig 22 : Total Heat flex of aluminium piston Ring Fig 23 : Total Heat flex of SiC reinforced ZrB2 piston Ring

COMPARISON OF RESULT ON STATIC ANALYSIS IN PISTON RING

Static Analysis Thermal Analysis

Directional
Piston Total deformation Von –
Piston Rings Total Heat Flex Directional Heat
Rings Deformation ( Y axis ) Misses
Flex
strain
( Y Axis )

Aluminium 7581.4 mm 258.91 mm 0.0341

Aluminium 0.43793 W/mm2 0.43793 W/mm2

SiC 5610.2 mm 195.26 mm 0.025228 SiC

reinforced reinforced 0.39757 W/mm2 0.39757 W/mm2
ZrB2 ZrB2

Table 4 : Static analysis of piston Ring Table 5 : Thermal analysis of piston Ring

C. FOR PISTON RING ASSEMBELY

The results obtained from applying aluminium & SiC reinforced ZrB2 material for piston ring assembely are,

Fig 24 : Boundary condition applied for assembly Fig 25 : Thermal Boundary condition applied for assembly

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Fig 26 : Total Deformation of aluminium assembly Fig 27 : Total Deformation of SiC reinforced ZrB2 assembly

Fig 28: Directional Deformation of aluminium assembly Fig 29: Directional Deformation of SiC reinforced ZrB2 assembly

Fig 30 : Von – Misses strain of aluminium assembly Fig 31 : Von – Misses strain of SiC reinforced ZrB2 assembly

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The Thermal results obtained from applying aluminium & SiC reinforced ZrB2 material for piston ring assembly
are,

Fig 32 : Total Heat flex of aluminium assembly Fig 33 : Total Heat flex of SiC reinforced ZrB2 assembly

Fig 34 :Directional Heat flex of aluminium assembly Fig 35 : Directional Heat flex of SiC reinforced ZrB2 assembly

COMPARISON OF RESULT ON STATIC ANALYSIS IN PISTON RING ASSEMBLY

Static Analysis Thermal Analysis

Directional
Piston Rings Total deformation Von – Piston Rings Total Heat Flex Directional Heat
assembly Deformation ( Y axis ) Misses assembly Flex
strain ( Y Axis )

Aluminium 0.07308 mm 0.00083 mm 0.00076853 Aluminium 20.512 W/mm2 18.079 W/mm2

SiC reinforced
SiC 0.05313 mm 0.00059 mm 0.00058127
reinforced
ZrB2 1.8153 W/mm2 1.6002 W/mm2
ZrB2

Table 6 : Static analysis of piston ring assembly Table 7 : Thermal analysis of piston ring assembly

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By comparing the above results we can easily concluded that the piston which made of aluminium material has
high deformation and high heat flex distribution ,when the same analysis is done with composite material it has low
deformation and low heat flex distribution. The results of all the analysis with different materials are compared and
tabulated in the above table. From the results it is observed that stresses are within permissible limits for all the
materials and it is observed that the deflections are very less for SiC reinforced ZrB2 Composite material
compared to Al-Alloy.

IX. MODAL ANALYSIS

Modal analysis was carried out on piston with 2 different materials (Al-alloy and SiC reinforced ZrB2 Composite
material) to determine the first 10 natural frequencies and fundamental mode shape of the structure. This would
enable us to understand the dynamic behavior of the structure. The more is the fundamental natural frequency the
more will be the stiffness of the structure. The boundary conditions used for modal analysis is as below
 Piston pin locations constrained in all DOF as shown in the figure.
Results of Modal analysis of piston for Al-alloy & SiC reinforced ZrB2 material: The first 10 natural
frequencies of piston with Al-alloy material and SiC reinforced ZrB2 and the corresponding mode numbers are
tabulated in the below table

Frequency ( Hz )

Mode No Piston with Al –alloy Piston with SiC reinforced ZrB2

material Composite material
1 4759.2 15717

2 6164.9 18708

3 7422.2 22853

4 7763 24119

5 9890.6 31508

6 10479 33331

7 11186 33854

8 13574 43991

9 14360 45005

10 14691 45343

Table 8: Comparisons of first 10 natural frequencies of piston for different material

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From the above modal analysis results it is observed that the first 10 natural frequencies are more for the piston
with SiC reinforced ZrB2 Composite material. This indicates that the piston with SiC reinforced ZrB2 Composite
material has more stiffness and dynamic response.

X. CONCLUSION
In this paper finite element analysis for static and dynamic conditions of the engine piston with different materials
was performed. The main objective of this project was to study the response of aluminium alloy and SiC reinforced
ZrB2 composite material for the applied temperatures and pressure. From the results it is concluded that the piston
with SiC reinforced ZrB2 composite material is having less defections, while the piston with aluminium alloy and
grey cast iron is having more deflections for the applied temperatures and pressures. It is also observed that the
stress for all the materials is within the allowable limits of the respective material. From the modal analysis, it is
observed that piston with aluminium alloy is having less geometric stiffness, while the piston with SiC reinforced
ZrB2 composite material is having more geometric stiffness. So, it is concluded that the fuselage piston with SiC
reinforced ZrB2 composite material is the best choice for the manufacturing of the piston. In this project for
complex designs it is recommended the use of the stress analyses software because complex geometries may cause
larger errors in the analytical procedure.

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MURALI KRISHNA.
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MURTHY, M. V. S. MURALI KRISHNA, G. M. PRASADA RAO.
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JATIT & LLS. By HONGYUAN ZHANG, ZHAOXUN LIN, DAWEI XU.
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[6] Design a four-cylinder Internal Combustion Engine International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research &
Applications Vol. 1 Issue 5, October – 2013 .ISSN: 2347-1719 by Radoslav Plamenov Georgiev,Dr. Pedro Villanueva
Roldan Dk.
[7] Design, Analysis and Optimization of Three Aluminium Piston Alloys Using FEA Ajay Raj Singh et al Int. Journal of
Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 1( Version 3, January 2014,
pp.94-102 by Ajay Raj Singh, Dr. Pushpendra Kumar Sharma

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