ANSYS Tutorial 3

Transient thermal Analysis of IC Engine Piston

Aim: To visualize the heat flow, heat flux and temperature distribution over an IC engine
piston, the head of which is subjected to a maximum temperature of 15000C and side walls are
exposed to convection. The material of the piston is taken as aluminum alloy and cooling
medium as stagnant water.

Software Package used: ANSYS Workbench 16.0

Design Modeler tools: Profile, Line, Horizontal constraint, Vertical constraint, Coincidence
constraint, Arc by 3 points, Revolve feature.

Procedure

1. Open ANSYS Workbench 16.0 and create a standalone Transient Thermal Analysis
system.
2. Go to Engineering Data > Engineering Data Sources > General Materials > Add
Aluminum Alloy > Exit.
3. Go to Geometry Properties > Set the analysis type to 3D in advanced geometry options.
4. Go to Geometry > In the Design Modeler window, go to Modeling tab in tree outline >
select XY Plane and click on Look at.

Prepared by: K.Harish Kumar & Y.Phaneendra, Mechanical Dept, Vignan IIT.
 5. Go to Sketching tab > Set the graphics window to desired area > Set the unit system to
Millimeters.
6. Using the tools Profile, Line, Horizontal constraint, Vertical constraint, Coincidence
constraint, Arc by 3 points and Revolve feature, complete the IC engine piston as shown
in the figure > Rename the solid to Piston > Exit Design Modeler.
7. Go to Model > Geometry > Piston > Material Assignment > Choose Aluminium Alloy.
8. Go to Mesh > Switch off advanced sizing function > Specify element size as 0.5 mm >
Generate mesh.
9. Go to Transient Thermal > Analysis settings > Specify end time as 15 seconds.
10. Go to Transient Thermal > Temperature > Geometry as Piston head > Tabular data >
Specify the time dependent temperature data as follows > Apply.

Step Time Temperature

1 0 250C
1 4 2000C
1 8 5000C
1 12 10000C
1 15 12000C

11. Go to Transient Thermal > Convection > Select the side faces of the piston subjected
to convection > Apply > Film coefficient > Import temperature dependent > Stagnant
water > Apply.
12. Go to Solution > Thermal > Temperature.
13. Go to Solution > Thermal > Total heat flux.
14. Click on Solve.

Result: Transient thermal analysis on IC engine piston is performed where heat flux and
temperature distribution are studied.

Prepared by: K.Harish Kumar & Y.Phaneendra, Mechanical Dept, Vignan IIT.
 Figure 1: Meshed geometry of piston

Figure 2: Total heat flux contours on piston

Figure 3: Temperature contours on piston