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Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2007) 398 – 402

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Thermal analysis of a ceramic coating diesel engine piston using 3-D

finite element method
Ekrem Buyukkaya ⁎, Muhammet Cerit
Sakarya University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Esentepe Campus, Sakarya 54187, Turkey
Received 14 February 2007; accepted in revised form 4 June 2007
Available online 13 June 2007

Abstract

In this study, firstly, thermal analyses are investigated on a conventional (uncoated) diesel piston, made of aluminum silicon alloy and steel.
Secondly, thermal analyses are performed on pistons, coated with MgO–ZrO2 material by means of using a commercial code, namely ANSYS.
Finally, the results of four different pistons are compared with each other. The effects of coatings on the thermal behaviors of the pistons are
investigated. It has been shown that the maximum surface temperature of the coated piston with material which has low thermal conductivity is
improved approximately 48% for the AlSi alloy and 35% for the steel.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Finite element method; Thermal analysis; Diesel engine piston; Ceramic coating

1. Introduction Ceramics have a higher thermal durability than metals;

It is important to calculate the piston temperature distribution
in order to control the thermal stresses and deformations within
acceptable levels. The temperature distribution enables the
designer to optimize the thermal aspects of the piston design at
lower cost, before the first prototype is constructed. As much as
60% of the total engine mechanical power lost is generated by
piston ring assembly [1]. Most of the internal combustion (IC)
engine pistons are made of aluminum alloy which has a thermal
expansion coefficient 80% higher than the cylinder bore
material made of cast iron. This leads to some differences
between running and the design clearances. Therefore, analysis
of the piston thermal behavior is extremely crucial in designing
more efficient engines. The thermal analysis of piston is
important from different point of views. First, the highest
temperature of any point on piston should not exceed 66% of
the melting point temperature of the alloy [2]. This limiting
temperature for the current engine piston alloy is about 370 °C.
This temperature level can be increased in ceramic coating
diesel engines.
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 264 295 5864; fax: +90 264 295 5601.
E-mail address: ebkaya@sakarya.edu.tr (E. Buyukkaya).
0257-8972/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2007.06.006
therefore it is usually not necessary to cool them as fast as
metals. Low thermal conductivity ceramics can be used to
control temperature distribution and heat flow in a structure [3-
5]. Thermal barrier coatings (TBC) provide the potential for
higher thermal efficiencies of the engine, improved combustion
and reduced emissions. In addition, ceramics show better wear
characteristics than conventional materials. Lower heat rejec-
tion from the combustion chamber through thermally insulated
components causes an increase in available energy that would
increase the in-cylinder work and the amount of energy carried
by the exhaust gases, which could be also utilized [6,7].
A lot of experimental study has been done to utilize these
ceramic properties to improve thermal efficiency by reducing
heat losses, and to improve mechanical efficiency by eliminat-
ing cooling systems. When cylinder-cooling losses are reduced,
more of the heat is delivered to the exhaust system. This
effective recovery of energy by exhaust improves the thermal
efficiency of low heat rejection engine (LHR). However,
installing heat recovery systems needs considerable effort; a
lot of changes are necessary in the engine configuration. Even
without heat recovery systems, some of the heat is converted to
piston work and increases thermal efficiency. Therefore, LHR
engines without exhaust heat recovery systems are worth to
study [8].
 E. Buyukkaya, M. Cerit / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2007) 398–402 399

Table 1
Material properties of piston, ring and ceramic
Material Thermal conductivity Thermal expansion Density [kg/m3] Specific heat [J/kg °C] Poisson's ratio Young's modulus [GPa]
[W/m °C] 10− 6 [1/°C]
AlSi 155 21 2700 960 0.3 90
Steel 79 12.2 7870 500 0.3 200
NiCrAl 16.1 12 7870 764 0.27 90
MgZrO3 0,8 8 5600 650 0.2 46
Oil ring 25–42 10–13 7200 0.29 160–135
Compression ring 46–59 10 7300 0.3 110–140

In the literature, although there are a lot of experimental
studies on thermal barrier coatings in the internal combustion
engines, there are a few numerical studies focused on 3-D
structural and thermal analyses on a diesel piston model. This
paper presents 3-D finite element modeling of AlSi alloy and
steel conventional diesel engine piston and ceramic coating
diesel engine piston.
2. Coating materials
The zirconia-based ceramic coatings are used as thermal
barrier coatings owing to their low conductivity and their
relatively high coefficients of thermal expansion, which reduce
the detrimental interfacial stresses. Material properties of the
MgZrO3, NiCrAl and piston material made of AlSi alloy are
listed in Table 1. Piston is coated with a 350 μm thickness of
MgZrO3 over a 150 μm thickness of NiCrAl bond coat (Fig. 1).
3. Thermal analyses by finite element method
In the numerical performed a truck engine piston, made of
AlSi alloy and steel, is taken as the basis in the simulation. 3-D
finite element thermal analyses are carried out on both
conventional and ceramic-coated engine piston. The finite
element mesh of the piston model used ANSYS code is shown
in Fig. 2. In the thermal analyses, eight nodes thermal elements
are used. In the model, surface to surface contact elements are
defined between piston ring and ring grove.
Piston thermal boundary conditions consist of the ring land
and skirt thermal boundary condition, underside thermal
boundary condition, piston pin thermal boundary condition,
combustion side thermal boundary condition.
Thermal circuit method is used to model the heat transfer in
the ring land and skirt region (Fig. 3) with the following
assumptions:
• the effect of piston motion on the heat transfer is neglected,
• the rings and skirt are fully engulfed in oil and there are no
cavitations,
• the rings do not twist,
• the conductive heat transfer in the oil film is neglected [9].
Based on the authors' past experience and numerous
measurements taken on the cylinder surface, it was assumed
that the inside ambient temperature could be estimated as the
average of temperature values of intake, compression, combus-
tion, expansion and exhaust temperatures during an engine
cycle [10]. In this way, the inside temperature was estimated to
be 650 °C with a convection coefficient of 800 W/m2 K. Lateral
surface temperature of the piston was specified as 300 °C with a

Fig. 1. Thermal barrier coating thickness. Fig. 2. The finite element mesh.
400 E. Buyukkaya, M. Cerit / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2007) 398–402
Fig. 3. Thermal circuit resistance model for heat transfer from the rings (R1: ring
resistance, R2: block resistance, R3: water-jacket resistance) [8].
convection coefficient of 230 W/m2 K. Ring temperatures of the
piston are defined 160 °C with a convection coefficient of
200 W/m2 K. Piston skirt and pin temperatures are defined
85 °C with convection coefficient of 60 W/m2 K [11].
4. Results and discussions
Numerical analyses were performed to evaluate temperature
gradients of the conventional and the thermal barrier coating
Fig. 4. Temperature distribution of conventional piston with AlSi alloy.
Fig. 5. Temperature distribution of ceramic coating piston with AlSi alloy.
piston. The temperature distributions on conventional and
ceramic coating piston with AlSi alloy are shown in Figs. 4 and
5 respectively. The maximum temperature value is determined
as 285 °C at the lip of conventional piston bowl. The maximum
temperature value of ceramic coating piston is determined as
424 °C at the top verge of the piston bowl. The move of the
maximum temperature from the piston lip to the sharp-edge of
the piston has been attributed to the fact that the lip has
relatively larger heat transfer area compared to the sharp-edge.
Since the lip surface has been coated circumferentially with a
Fig. 6. Temperature distribution is plotted against the length along the surface of
AlSi alloy piston including bowl surface length.
 E. Buyukkaya, M. Cerit / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2007) 398–402
Fig. 7. Temperature distribution is plotted against the length along the surface of
the ceramic coating piston with AlSi alloy including bowl surface length.
relatively very low conduction coefficient material, the heat
transfer was reduced considerably to it. Therefore, the
maximum temperature has been observed at the sharp-edged
surface rather than the lip surface. The piston surface
temperature variations of both the graph and counter plot with
distance are shown in terms of the conventional and the thermal
barrier coating piston in Figs. 6 and 7 respectively. The
maximum surface temperature of the base metal of the coating
piston is seen to be 261 °C. It shows to increase the combustion
chamber temperature of the engine. The base metal subjects to
Fig. 8. Temperature distribution of conventional steel piston.
401
Fig. 9. Temperature distribution of ceramic coating steel piston.
less thermal load. Moreover, it is clear that the cooling load of
system is decreased.
The temperature distributions on conventional and ceramic
coating steel piston are shown in Figs. 8 and 9 respectively. The
maximum surface temperature value is determined 357 °C at the
combustion chamber of conventional piston. The maximum
surface temperature value of ceramic coating steel piston is
determined 485 °C on the verge of the combustion chamber.
The piston surface temperature variations of both the graph and
counter plot with distance are shown in terms of the
Fig. 10. Temperature distribution is plotted against the length along the surface
of the conventional steel piston including bowl surface length.
402 E. Buyukkaya, M. Cerit / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2007) 398–402
Fig. 11. Temperature distribution is plotted against the length along the surface
of the ceramic coating piston including bowl surface length.
conventional and the thermal barrier coating piston in Figs. 10
and 11 respectively. The maximum surface temperature of the
base metal of the coating piston is 326 °C. That's why lifetime
of the coated piston is increased and cooling load is diminished.
The surface temperature of the piston with AlSi alloy is
found to improve approximately 48% via ceramic coating. This
improved value is about 35% for the steel piston. Cast-iron
pistons run about 40 to 80 °C hotter than aluminum pistons.
When the AlSi alloy and the steel pistons with ceramic coating
are compared with each other, the steel piston is higher
approximately 14% than the other.
5. Conclusions
From the obtained results, the maximum temperature value
of the coated piston was shown at the piston's combustion bowl
lip. Therefore, this area must be coated oversensitivity.
The maximum surface temperature of the coated piston with
material which has low thermal conductivity is improved
approximately 48% for the AlSi alloy and 35% for the steel in
our studies. These results show that the reduction in the cooling
load of system is also obtainable.
The maximum surface temperature of the base metal of the
coating piston is 261 °C for AlSi and 326 °C for steel. Structural
behaviors of the conventional metal materials are varied
negative with temperature. By means of ceramic coating,
strength and deformation of the materials are improved.
Maximum surface temperature of the steel piston is higher
approximately 14% than the AlSi alloy one.
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