THE PISTON DYNAMICS UNDER KNOCK SITUATION OF DIESEL DUAL
FUEL ENGINE:
A NUMERICAL STUDY
Krisada Wannatong1,2, Somchai Chanchaona1 and Surachai Sanitjai1
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok 10140 THAILAND
2
PTT Public Company Limited, Bangkok 10900 THAILAND. E-mail: krisada.w@pttplc.com
ABSTRACT
The compression ignition engine fueled by natural gas or
Diesel Dual Fuel (DDF) engine is a promising engine for
the future with a higher oil price. Unfortunately, the DDF
engine knock easily: this leads to damage of a piston. So,
the understanding of the piston motion in the knock
situation is crucial for the safe DDF engine operation.
This is the first implementation of piston dynamic study
focusing on the motion of the piston of DDF engine under
knock situation. The simulation model was developed
recently by our research group [1]. Two sets of cylinder
pressure data: original diesel mode and DDF mode under
knock situation were used as input for the model. The
results show that the model can contribute the
understanding of tribological phenomena of the piston
lubrication. A higher peak cylinder pressure slightly
increases the piston lateral motion, tilt angle, side force,
and impact force. Hence, the forces from piston dynamic
are not the main factor of the piston damage under the
knock situation.
KEYWORDS
Modelling, Simulation, Piston secondary motion, Mixed-
lubrication, Diesel dual fuel engine, Knock.
1. Introduction
Natural gas (NG) is one of the alternative energy to
partially replace the diminishing fossil oil. Since its retail
price is much lower than those of gasoline and diesel, NG
has been utilized for electricity generation and for
transportation in Thailand. Recently, it has been used in
many conventional vehicles with a bi-fuel system, a
dedicated system, or a DDF system.
In the case of DDF engine, the test results show that the
engine knock onsets easily [2]. A higher peak pressure in
the combustion chamber was observed [2]. Under the
continuous knock operation, the piston and the liner will
be damaged eventually. That higher peak pressure might
alter the piston dynamics, which enhance the damages.
Besides moving along the axial direction of the engine
liner, the piston of reciprocating engine also moves in
other directions, depending on clearances between the
piston and the engine liner, with smaller extent. These
motions are called secondary motions. The secondary
motion is affected by many forces such as force from
hydrodynamic, force from liner friction, and force from
combustion gas. The piston motion is the function of
many mechanisms such as piston ring pack motion,
engine liner wear mechanism, and lubricant consumption
mechanism. So, the knowledge of the piston motion will
contribute the understanding of those mechanisms.
The piston secondary motion has been studied by many
researchers. Ishizuki et al. [3] studied the effect of piston
secondary motion and cylinder wear on oil consumption.
They used L-Link to measure the piston motion in the
study and reported that piston secondary motion
combined with soot built up at piston top land caused the
gradual increase the cylinder wear.
Haddad [4] proposed the theory of piston motion in an
internal combustion engine. He divided the piston motion
into 4 modes: 1) No horizontal moving: top and bottom of
the skirt are in contact with the bore; 2) Piston rotating
about the top of the skirt; 3) Piston rotating about the
bottom of the skirt; 4) Piston moving freely in the bore.
The effect of lubricant was neglected in the studies. The
numerical results showed a good correlation with
experimental measurement.
Wannatong et al. [1] modelled the piston component
motion on a three degree-of-freedom vibration system to
present a planar motion. The hydrodynamic force from
lubrication effect was model by 3D pseudo Reynolds’s
equation and solved by finite difference method, FDM.
All forces and their moments were balanced by putting
them into the equation of motion: Newton and Euler
equations and solved them by Secant method. Since there
are no algebra part, that simulation techniques is suitable
for the surface with complicated shape.
In this study, the piston motion in the knock situation has
been simulated by the previously developed simulation
program [1]. The blow-by/blow-back model and viscosity
model were added into the original simulation for validity
improvement. This study provides better understanding of
the piston secondary motion under the knock situation.
2. The Piston Dynamics Simulation Where
ρ
Fp is total force exert on body, N
In addition to the piston secondary motion simulation, m is mass of body, kg
that was developed by Wannatong et al [1], the blow-
by/blow-back model has been developed and added. The v&c is acceleration at CG of mass, m/s2
concept of this simulation is shown in section 2.1 and the c
I is inertia tensor of body located at the CG, kg.m2
blow-by and blow-back model is discussed in section 2.2
ωi is angular velocity of body, rad/s
2.1 Concept ω&i is angular acceleration of body, rad/s2

The piston pin force These equations are non-linear. In this study, the secant
The motions of piston components were modeled on the iteration method was utilized. Detail of piston secondary
three degree-of-freedom vibrational system to present the motion was reported elsewhere [1].
planar motion as shown in Fig. 1. The analysis started
from kinetic analysis of link 0 to link 3 and then dynamics
analysis was done backward from link 3 to link 0. The
dynamic equations for each component are Newton’s and
Euler’s equations. The kinetics and the dynamics analyses
Fy
consist of 9 unknowns and 9 equations. These system
equations are linear which can be solved by a general dA
elimination method. The important result of these Fx
solutions that would be used for the piston secondary
ρ Fz
Calculation
motion are the force at piston pin, F p . Node

Forces acting on Surface Fig.2 The calculation node on piston surface

The piston surface was divided into n sections as shown
in Fig.2. At each section, the calculation nodes were
assigned on the piston surface. Each node contains its
own properties such as position, area, and normal
direction to area. Each time step, the surface pressures (as
shown in Fig.1b) were determined and converted to
surface forces and their moments. These forces and
moments will be added to the calculation node as the node
properties.
TA
ρ connected to the other volumes by small clearance or gap
Fg
Link 3: Piston
X3
2.2 Blow-by/Blow-back Model
The blow-by/blow-back model as shown in Fig.3 was
added into original simulation for the calculation of the
gas pressure affecting on the piston surface. The volume
of combustion chamber (V0), piston top land (V1), second
land (V3), third land (V5), volume at piston skirt (V7), and
the volume behind each ring (V2, V4, and V6) are
considered as the stagnation volumes. Each volume is
ρ

as shown as a block diagram in Fig. 3 (b). The Reynolds

Y3

Fg
equation was used for the flow through the small
Link 2: Connecting Rod ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ
M h , M g , M a , M i , M fh , M fa clearance between piston and its groove, whereas the
θ2
ρ orifice flow was used for the flow through piston ring
Fh
X2

θ1
ρ gap. The detail of blow-by/blow-back model is shown in
Y2

Link 1: Crank Radius Ex ρ Fa

Fp
Y1
Y0
X1
θ
X0 1
Link 0: Base ρ ρ the study of Tian [9]
CG

F fa F fh

(a) (b) V0

Combustion
Fig.1 Piston secondary model: a) Links motion and b) Chamber
V0
V1

forces and their moments V1

V2

V2 Piston
First ring V3
Second V3
The governing equations ring V4
V4
Oil ring
The unknown parameters that represent the piston motion V5 V5

V6
are lateral motion, vertical motion and tile angle. These V7
V6

V7
motion parameters were determined by put all surface Engine
Crankcase
Va V8
forces and their moments into the Newton’s and the V8

Euler’s equations [5]:

Flow Through Orifice
Va

F = mv&c
Flow Through Small Clerance
(1) (a) (b)
M = Iω&+ ω× Iω
c c
(2).
Fig.3 Blow-by/blow-back flow model: a) flow path and b)
block diagram of model.
3. Numerical Experiment
3.1 Input Parameters

Engine and piston component

The engine model that was used in this simulation is the
Ricardo Hydra engine, diesel direct injection. The
specification of the engine components are shown in
Table 1 and the piston skirt profile is shown in Fig.4. (a) (b)
100
Distance from bottom (mm)

90
80
Fig.6 Temperature distribution of : a) the piston and b) the
70
60
engine liner
50
40
30 Engine test and cylinder pressure
20
10 The cylinder pressure data are the important input
0
39.8 39.85 39.9 39.95 40 40.05 40.1
parameters for piston dynamic simulation. In this study,
Radius (mm) the cylinder data were obtained from the Ricardo Hydra
engine test, operated at 2000 rpm as the diesel and DDF
Fig.4 Piston surface profile (Ref. to Table 1) modes, respectively. The schematic diagram for engine
test is shown in Fig.7, whereas the engine test conditions
Calculation nodes are shown in table 1, and the cylinder data are shown in
The calculation nodes were generated on piston surface as Fig.8.
shown in Fig.5. The number of nodes in area which has
possibility to contact with the engine liner was more In order to operate the engine on the DDF mode, under
carefully generated than the other areas. Since the piston the knock situation, the pilot diesel was controlled to be
rings are symmetry, half of piston is enough for the 205 g/hr (19% of full throttle). Meanwhile, the gas was
simulation. supplied to the engine until knock was onset at torque of
26 Nm. The engine knock was detected by the FFT
0.06
frequency analysis technique [8].
0.04

0.02
Table 1 The input parameters for simulation program.
y (m)

0.00
-0.02
-0.04
-0.06
Engine
0.04 bore 80.26 mm
0.02
Stroke 88.9 mm
x(

0.00 -0.0
m)

-0.02
-0.02
-0.04 Cylinder Pressure see Fig.7
0.00
-0.04
0.02 Piston
-0.06 0.04 )
z (m
0.06 Distance from Bottom to Piston Pin 43.17 mm
Fig.5 Node on piston surface (Ref. to Table 1). Distance from Top to Piston Pin 50.93 mm
Distance from CG to Piston Pin 7.3 mm
Piston Skirt Profile see Fig.8
Lubricant film thickness Mass 0.581 kg
The lubricant film thickness is the function of the piston Moment of Inertia 0.000564793 kg.m2
ring motion. However, it has been found that the average Connecting Rod
film thickness is about 10 micron [6]. Distance from Big End Center to CG 54 mm
Length 158 mm
Mass 2.282 kg
Piston and liner temperature distribution Moment of Inertia 0.004759 kg.m2
The temperature distributions on piston surface and Crank radius
engine liner surface are the important parameters for the Length 44.45 mm
Lubicant
calculation of the viscosity distribution of the lubricant. In
Lubricant Viscosity @ Tamb 0.012 Pa.s
this study, the temperature distributions on both piston Z 0.6
and engine liner were from Heywood [7] as shown in S0 1.1
Fig.6. In order to determine the lubricant temperature, the Cavitation Pressure 0(gauge) Pa
average temperature at the calculation node on the piston Lubricant Film Thickness Below Oil Ring Fully Flooded
surface and on the temperature at engine liner surface, Lubricant Film Thickness Above Oil Ring 10 micron
which has the same vertical position as the piston, was
used as the lubricant temperature at that node. The Table 2 The engine operate conditions
specification of engine lubricant is shown in Table 1.
Mode Speed (rpm) Fuel (kg/hr) Torque (Nm) Remark
Diesel Gas
Diesel 2000 1.07 - 25 Full throttle
DDF 2000 0.205 1.78 26 Knock on set
 Diesel
Tank
Diesel
Temperature
Diesel
Flow
Fuel
Injection
case diesel mode operated at 2000 rpm full throttle and
Conditioning Meter Pump
IBM Compatible
DDF knock mode at 2000 rpm, respectively.
Natural Gas Pressure Signal
200 bar Regulator Conditioning and
Hi-speed Data
Aquasition
The results of crevice pressure for diesel and DDF mode
Gas Flow Meter

Air Pressure
are shown in Fig.10 and Fig.11, respectively. These
Gas Mixer
Sensor
results show that the gas pressures in combustion chamber
Engine and in the piston top land are not difference while the
dynamo
meter
Engine
pressure in second land and third land are higher than the
pressure in crankcase. Fig.12 shows the simulated results
Fig.7 The engine test schematic diagram of the piston lateral motion, comparison between with and
100 without crevice pressure consideration. The results show
DDF 26 Nm. (Knock) that the significant error can be occurred if the pressures
Diesel 25 Nm (Full Throttle)
80
in second and third land are assumed equal to crankcase
Cylinder Pressure (Bar)

60 pressure.
80
40 P0
P1
60 P2
20 P3
P4
P5

Pressure (bar)
40 P6
0
P7
P8

-90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 20

Degree of Crank Angle

Fig.8 Cylinder pressure of the Ricardo Hydra engine, 0

operated in the DDF mode

-20
-360 -270 -180 -90 0 90 180 270 360

Piston ring motion for blow-by/blow-back flow Degree of Crank Angle

Even the motion of piston ring affects the flow area of Fig.10 Crevice gas pressure of the Ricardo Hydra engine,
the blow-by/blow-back model, it can be neglected operated in the diesel mode at the speed of 2000 rpm, full
because the change in pressure amplitude is negligible, as throttle, and at the torque of 25 Nm.
80
compared to the cylinder pressure. So, the piston rings P0

were assumed to stay in the middle position of their 60

P1
P2
P3
grooves in vertical direction and the piston rings faces P4
P5
Pressure (bar)

were assumed to touch the engine liner surface all the 40 P6

P7

time. P8

20

3.2 Simulation Results and Discussion 0

All results which will be discussed were computed from -20

-360 -270 -180 -90 0 90 180 270 360
simulation program. The simulated conditions are show in Degree of Crank Angle
section 3.1. The reference directions of engine rotation, Fig.11 Crevice gas pressure, DDF mode, 2000 rpm, with
forces, displacements and tile angle that used in this work knock limit, and at the torque of 26 Nm.
are shown in Fig.9.
TA 0.00004

90 0.00003
Major Thrust Side
Minor Thrust Side

W/
0.00002
Lateral motion (m)

180 0 0.00001 W/- Crevice pressure

Ex 0
W/O W/O Crevice pressure

94.1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
- + -0.00001

-0.00002
h

-0.00003
Rotation
direction -0.00004
0
Degree of crank angle

Fig.12 The simulation results of the piston lateral motion,

Fig.9 Reference directions used in this work DDF mode , 2000 rpm, with knock limit, and at the torque
of 26 Nm, with and without taking crevice pressure into
Blow-by/blow-back gas pressure and its effect on piston account.
motion
The gas pressures in the piston crevices are calculated Piston dynamics
from the blow-by/blow-back model. The simulation Fig. 13 shows the piston secondary motions, lateral
results were used as the input pressure for piston dynamic motion and tilt angle simulated at 2000 rpm, full throttle.
simulation. Fig.10 and Fig.11 are the gas pressures for the The lubricant film thickness was assumed equal to 10
micron. The lateral motion results show that the piston 40

was slap to the engine liner. The direction of lateral 35 Hydrodynamic friction force
30 Asperity contact friction force
motion and tilt angle were changed rapidly at TDC and 25

Friction force (N)

BTDC. These motions were caused by the inertia of 20
15
piston and their components. The reason of rapid slap 10
motion is the thin lubrication film was assumed. So, the 5
0
piston partially lubricated and the fast lateral motion can -5-360 -270 -180 -90 0 90 180 270 360

occur when the piston does not contact to the lubricant -10

film. Details of the simulated piston secondary motions Degree of crank angle

have been discussed in the literature [1]. Fig.15 Simulation results of asperity contact friction and
hydrodynamic, 2000 rpm and full throttle.
The simulation result for the hydrodynamic force and
asperity contact force acting on the piston ring surface Asperity contact pressure

and their friction are shown in Fig.14 and Fig 15. The 300

0
results show that the peak of hydrodynamic force and 250 50
100
asperity contact occurred when the piston surfaces are 200
150
200

Pressure (bar)
250
closed to engine liner. However, the force direction from 150 300

Hydrodynamic pressure
hydrodynamic and asperity contact are in opposite 100

direction and difference area shown as a pressure 50

distribution at 82 ATDC in Fig.16. This pressure 0

distribution result shows that the pressure from asperity 180

160
0.02
m
(m
)
140 0.04 tto
bo
contact was acting on the minor thrust side, bottom of Cir
120
100
80 0.06 fro
m
cum ce
tan
60
piston skirt area whereas the hydrodynamic pressure sta
nce 40 20
(de
0.08
Dis
g) 0
acting on the major thrust side, middle of piston skirt area.
Fig.16 Hydrodynamic pressure distribution on piston skirt
Lateral motion (m)
surface, original diesel mode, 82 ATDC.
0.00004 0.0015
Tilt angle (deg)
0.00003
0.001 Diesel and DDF Results under knock situation
Lateral motion (m)

0.00002
Tile angle (deg)

0.00001
0.0005 The comparison of piston secondary motion between
0 0 original diesel mode and DDF-Knock mode are shown in
-0.00001-360 -160 40 240
-0.0005
Fig. 17 to 21. From Fig. 17, the simulated result shows
-0.00002
-0.001
that the piston of diesel mode reaches to the engine liner
-0.00003
before DDF-Knock mode. The reason is mass of the air in
-0.00004 -0.0015
Degree of crank angle
the combustion chamber at 5 to 10 ATCD, before
combustion of diesel mode is more than that of DDF-
Fig.13 Simulation results of the piston lateral motion and Knock mode. It causes relatively higher pressure at these
tilt angle, 2000 rpm and full throttle. crank angles and pushes faster the piston to the engine
1500 liner. However, the displacement of DDF-Knock mode is
1000
500
more than diesel mode. The reason is combustion
0 pressure of DDF-Knock mode is higher. This reason is
Side force (N)

-500-360 -270 -180 -90 0 90 180 270 360

also described the higher tilt angle of DDF-Knock mode
-1000
-1500
as shown in Fig. 18.
-2000 Hydrodynamic force 0.00004
-2500 Asperity contact force
0.00003 Diesel
Lateral motion (m)

-3000 DDF-Knock
0.00002
-3500
0.00001
Degree of crank angle
0
Fig.14 Simulated results of asperity contact force and -0.00001 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
-0.00002
hydrodynamic force, 2000 rpm and full throttle. -0.00003
-0.00004
Degree of crank angle
Fig.15 shows the hydrodynamic friction and asperity
contact friction. The direction of these frictions is in the Fig.17 Piston lateral motion of DDF-knock and original
opposite direction of piston motion. The amplitude of diesel mode.
asperity contact friction depends on the amplitude of
asperity contact force whereas the amplitude of
hydrodynamic friction depends on piston velocity and
hydrodynamic pressure gradient.
 0.0015 Diesel
Fig.20 and Fig.21 show the results of hydrodynamic force
0.001
DDF-Knock and asperity contact force, comparison between diesel
Tilt Angle (deg.)

0.0005
mode and DDF-knock mode. The results show that the
peak hydrodynamic force of the DDF-knock mode is
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 more than diesel model by 20 % whereas the asperity
-0.0005
contact force does no alter significantly.
-0.001

-0.0015
Degree of crank angle 4. Conclusion
Fig.18 Piston tilt angles of DDF-knock and original diesel
mode. The blow-by/blow-back model was developed to
improve the previous simulation model in view of validity
Consider the impact force represented by lateral improvement. The model was used for study the piston
acceleration as shown in Fig.19. The results show that dynamics of the diesel engine and the diesel dual fuel
there are no significant difference between diesel mode engine under knock situation. The results show that the
and DDF-knock mode. So, the piston damaged might not model can contribute to the understanding of tribological
be from the impact between piston and engine liner wall. phenomena of the piston lubrication. Moreover, the
600 results of piston dynamics of the diesel dual fuel engine
Diesel-Full Throttle
400 DDF-Knock
under knock situation show that the higher peak cylinder
200 pressure causes slightly increasing in the piston lateral
motion, tilt angle, side force, and impact force. So it is
Inertia force (N)

-200
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 confirmed that the forces from piston dynamic is not the
main factor of the piston damaged under the knock
-400
situation. These reason corresponded to the CEC standard
-600
test method, relationship between knock and engine
-800
damage, code practice, CEC M-07-T-83 [10] which
-1000
Degree of crank angle
indicate that the damage from piston impact with engine
liner wall is not the type of damage from engine knock.
Fig.19. Simulation results of lateral inertia force of the
Ricardo Hydra diesel engine at the speed of 2000 rpm,
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
and full throttle.
2000
This research was financially supported by PTT Public
1000
Company, THAILAND.
Hydrodynamics force (N)

0
-360 -270 -180 -90 0 90 180 270 360
-1000
6. REFERENCES
-2000

-3000
[1] K. Wannatong, S. Chanchaona and S. Sanitchai,
Diesel-Full Throttle
-4000 DDF-Knock Simulation of Piston Secondary Motion and Pressure
-5000 distribution in Lubricant Film, Proceedings of the
Degree of crank angle International Conference on Modeling and Simulation
Fig.20. Simulation results of hydrodynamic force of the 2006, (202), 2006
Ricardo Hydra diesel engine, operated at 2000 rpm, [2] Z. Liu and G.A. Karim, Knock Characteristics of
comparison between DDF-knock and diesel full throttle Dual-Fuel Engines Fuelled with Hydrogen Fuel, Int. J.
250
Hydrogen Energy, 20(11), 1995, 919-924,
Diesel-Full Throttle [3] Y. Ishizuki, F.Sato, K. Takase, Effect of Cylinder
DDF-Knock
200 Liner Wear on Oil Consumption in Heavy Duty Diesel
Asperity contact force (N)

150
Engines, SAE paper 810931, 1981
[4] S.D. Haddad, Theoretical Treatment of Piston Motion
100 in I.C. Piston Engine for The Prediction of Piston Slap
50
Excitation, Mech. Mach. Theory , 30(2), 1995, 253-269,
[5] J.J. Craig, Introduction to Robotics (Addison-Wesley,
0
-360 -270 -180 -90 0 90 180 270 360
1989, 178-219).
-50
[6] C. Mattson, Measurement of the Oil Film Thickness
Degree of crank angle Between the Cylinder Liner and the Piston Rings in a
Fig.21 Simulation results of asperity contact force of the Heavy duty Directly Injected Diesel Engine, SAE paper
Ricardo Hydra diesel engine, operated at 2000 rpm, 952469,1995
comparison between DDF-knock and diesel full throttle [7] J.B Heywood, Internal Combustion Engine
Fundamentals, (McGraw-Hill, 1988, 698-699)
[8] B. Samimy, G. Rizzoni, Engine Knock Analysis and
Detection Using Time-Frequency Analysis, SAE paper
960618,1996
[9] T.Tain, Modeling The Performance of The Piston
Ring-Pack in Internal Combustion Engines (Ph.D. Thesis,
MIT, 1997)
[10] CEC M-07-T-83, The Relationship between Knock
and Engine Damage, Tentative Code Practice, 1983