Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x
DOI 10.1007/s12206-011-0631-5

Study on the optimal design of engine cylinder head by parametric structure

characterization with weight distribution criterion†
Jun Hong1, Baotong Li1,3,*, Yubao Chen2 and Huei Peng3
1
College of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China
2
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128, U.S.A
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, U.S.A

(Manuscript Received October 13, 2010; Revised March 12, 2011; Accepted June 26, 2011)

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Abstract

The engine cylinder head is one of the most critical components in an automotive powertrain system. Yet, it has the most complicated
mechanical structure coupled with a sophisticated combustion process. This study attempts to develop a concrete and practical procedure
for the optimal design of the engine cylinder head. First, a simplified topological model composed of beam, shell and membrane ele-
ments is developed to simulate the real cylinder head. With this model, the finite element method can be easily and economically em-
ployed to study the load-bearing mechanism of the cylinder head under actual engine operation conditions. After characterizing the
stress/strain behavior of all the key components through parametric analysis, a new optimization criterion is developed based on La-
grange conditions. This criterion provides an opportunity to represent the ideal ‘balanced point’ among the main design parameters of the
cylinder head in terms of weight distribution of the key components. Finally, the optimization of the cylinder head structure is imple-
mented successfully based on these findings. Compared to the optimization results from commercial software, the proposed approach is
able to produce a much better solution in respect to both the convergence speed and the final value of the objective function.

Keywords: Engine; Cylinder head; Optimal design; Topological model; Parametric structure characterization; Weight distribution criterion
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[3]. Lee et al. [4] further complemented the full three-

1. Introduction
dimensional FE model, and applied the contact theory to
In an automotive powertrain system, one of the most critical evaluate the sealing efficiency of a 2.0 L cylinder head. Later,
components is the cylinder head, which possesses the compli- by integrating the finite element method (FEM) and computa-
cated mechanical structure coupled with a sophisticated com- tional fluid dynamics (CFD), Shojaefard et al. [5] explored a
bustion process. With the ever-increasing demand for higher general methodology to simulate the interactions between
engine power, the requirement for the cylinder head’s load- structural mechanics, heat transfer, and fluid coolant within
bearing capacity is also increasing. In addition, lightweight the cylinder head. Other analytical and empirical contributions
design is also being pursued for the cylinder head, which is for the evaluation of the cylinder head structure are available
important for better fuel economy and vehicle safety [1, 2]. in the literature [6-10].
Obviously, higher load-bearing capacity and lighter weight are However, the traditional approach is a computationally in-
two conflicting goals. Therefore, realization of an ideal bal- tensive task and it is difficult to build an effective model with
anced design among the key components of the cylinder head precise boundary conditions during the early stages of the
is essential to resolve the above conflict. design. Another problem is that although constructing and
Traditionally, optimization of engine components such as calculating the detailed FE model can provide accurate simu-
the cylinder head was based on constructing a detailed FE lation results, no detailed information about the load-bearing
model and carrying out a series of different numerical simula- mechanism is available, and one cannot determine why the
tions. A pioneering computational work dealing with the pre- design does or does not work. To get a deep insight on the
diction of a distorted cylinder head was performed by Chyuan structural characteristics of the cylinder head, simple and prac-
†
This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor tical FE models are still lacking and need to be explored.
Jeonghoon Yoo As a different approach, parametric analysis is very useful
*
Corresponding author: Tel.: +86 29 83399517, Fax.: +86 29 83399528 to evaluate the component’s structural integrity. Wang et al.
E-mail address: baotong.csu@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
© KSME & Springer 2011 [11] proposed a regression-based scheme to analyze the statis-
2608 J. Hong et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614
Fig. 1. Flowchart of the optimal design procedure for engine cylinder head.
(a) Simplified CAD model
Fig. 2. The simplified topological model of cylinder head.
tical nature of the main parameters of the cylinder head. In
another study, Zhang et al. [12] presented a detailed paramet-
ric investigation on the quantitative relationship between de-
sign parameters and structural responses. In this work, a hy-
pothesis that there exists an ideal ‘matching point’ among the
key components of the cylinder head was finally verified.
However, a systematic approach focusing on the mathematical
nature of this special ‘matching point’ was not given, though
the ‘matching point’ may be utilized to get a better under-
standing for the optimal design of the cylinder head. To the
best of the author’s knowledge, this paper may be considered
as an initial attempt for structure characterization and optimi-
zation of the engine cylinder head.
2. Optimal design procedure for engine cylinder head
This section presents an optimal design procedure for the
engine cylinder head. It involves three major steps; namely,
simplification of the cylinder head model, investigation of
structural characteristics and optimization of the cylinder head
structure. Fig. 1 shows the system architecture of this proce-
dure.
In the first step, a simplified topological model is developed
to handle the complications of the mechanical structure and
boundary conditions considered in the numerical simulation.
Details of the effort include topological model definition,
thermal-mechanical analysis, and validation of the simplified
FE model.
The next step is the investigation of the structural character-
istics. The simplified model established in the first step is fur-
ther developed into a series of different model states. With
these models, the parametric analysis is conducted to study the
stress convergence characteristics of different key components.
(b) Simplified FE model
Analytical results indicate that there exists an ideal ‘balanced
point’ among the main parameters of the cylinder head.
In the third step, a simple and practical optimization crite-
rion is developed based on Lagrange conditions. This criterion
represents the ideal ‘balanced point’ in terms of weight distri-
bution of the key components, and then the optimization of the
cylinder head structure can be achieved based on these find-
ings.
Following this procedure, Sections 3-5 discuss the steps in
detail. To demonstrate the optimal design procedure, a line
style gasoline engine, having 4 cylinders and 4 strokes, is
adopted in this paper.
3. A simplified topological representation of cylinder
head
To truly get an effective simplified model, thought should
be given to the key components within the cylinder head, such
as their dimensions and the complex geometrical relationships
between them. Under the premise of unchanged topological
relationships between these key components, a simplified
model is extracted from the previous detailed model by using
shell, beam and membrane structure instead of the original
solid structure, as shown in Fig. 2.
The simplified model can be divided into ten parts, includ-
ing external supporting components (such as bottom deck, top
deck, inlet/exhaust side decks) and internal functional compo-
nents (such as jacket of spark plug, inlet/exhaust ports, inter-
mediate deck, valve guides and stiffeners). There is no other
redundant geometrical structure in this model.
Because the deformation of the cylinder head is mainly
caused by thermal stress, the primary target of the simulation
is to precisely predict temperature distribution. However,
 J. Hong et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614 2609

Table 1. Thermal boundary conditions used in the present research work.

Key region Temperature (K) Convective coefficient (W m-2 K)

Outside Cylinder head 293.00 105.30
Bottom deck 1358.37 1092.36
Gas side Inlet port 357.76 372.40
Exhaust port 1313.92 672.32
3rd
Bottom deck 362.50 13433.09
cylinder
Inlet port 362.10 10565.26
Coolant side Exhaust port 363.50 11903.06
Jacket of spark plug 361.80 10013.27
Intermediate deck 361.40 11040.75
… … … … …

(a) FE models (b) Pre-tightening load step (c) Thermal load step (d) Gas pressure load step

Fig. 3. Sequentially coupled thermal-mechanical simulation procedure in the present research work.

(a) Contours of static temperature (b) Contours of static stress

Fig. 4. Comparison of the structural responses between the detailed and simplified FE models.

thermal calculation faces challenging problems since the
thermal boundary conditions may change substantially both in
time and space. To overcome this difficulty, the time-averaged
convective heat transfer coefficients are considered for several
key regions, such as the engine exterior, gas side of the cylin-
der head, and coolant side of the cylinder head; for calculation
details see Refs. [13, 14]. A part of the thermal boundary con-
ditions used in this research is presented in Table 1.
In addition to thermal load, the cylinder head has to endure
pre-tightening force and gas pressure. For this case, the maxi-
mum pressure of 6.5 MPa is applied to cylinder 3, and the
same action is then performed for the other cylinders. Mean-
while, to capture the pre-tightening effect on cylinder head, a
required compressive axial load (60 KN) is imposed on the
bolt bodies, and the contact elements are applied on the inter-
faces between the cylinder head, bolts, and gasket.
Considering the specified loads originating from different
kinds of mechanics, the simulation procedure could be further
divided into three load steps: (1) pre-tightening load step, (2)
thermal load step and (3) gas pressure load step. Fig. 3 pro-
vides details about the coupled thermal-mechanical simulation
procedure. Since high temperature and stress gradients are
anticipated in and around the valve bridge area, the small and
sensitive regions are meshed with high resolution (i.e., the
element aspect ratio is approximately 2.0). The completed FE
model contains 55 152 elements and 62 816 nodes. To accu-
rately represent the boundary conditions applied on the simpli-
fied structure, a parametric-oriented FE model was developed
and implemented through an author-written APDL subroutine.
Fig. 4 shows the comparison of structural responses between
the detailed and simplified FE models.
It is obvious that both the temperature and stress distribu-
tion calculated from the detailed and simplified FE models are
very similar. The temperature at the valve bridge and valve
seats is relatively high and gradually decreases far away from
the central region of the combustion chamber. Due to the large
temperature gradients existing at the bridge area, large stress
patterns are also observed at this region. Moreover, the calcu-
2610 J. Hong et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614

Fig. 5. The construction of the multi model states for engine cylinder head.

(a) Bottom deck (b) Top deck (c) Inlet side deck (d) Exhaust side deck

(e) Inlet port (f) Exhaust port (g) Intermediate deck

Fig. 6. Influence of the key components’ thickness on the Von Mises maximum stress.

lation difference between the detailed and simplified FE mod-
els for the maximum temperature is less than 3.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the difference for the maximum Von Mises stress
reached within 4.3 percent. It is concluded that the calculation
results from these two models are matched relatively well.
Therefore, the simplified model can represent the real cylinder
head, and it can be further utilized for parametric analysis.
It should be noted that the use of the simplified FE model
has the following advantages: (a) reduction of the complica-
tions of mechanical structure and boundary conditions consid-
ered in the numerical simulation; (b) realization of the auto-
matic mapping between boundary conditions and key compo-
nents. With these advantages, the CPU time can be shortened
substantially. For instance, when the simulation based on sim-
plified FE model took only 15.62 s on a personal computer
with Intel (R) core (TM) i7 processor; however, it took
2392.16 s for the simulation based on the previous detailed FE
model.
4. Investigation of the structural characteristics of
cylinder head
4.1 Construction of the multi-model states
To truly capture the load-bearing mechanism of each key
component under actual engine operation conditions, it is nec-
essary to clarify the complex interactions between these key
components. In the present research, to develop the analytical
methodology of the cylinder head in respect to the structure, a
series of different model states are extracted from the simpli-
fied topological model by using a Boolean computation tech-
nique.
For instance, the first model state (M1) used in this research
is an external frame structure in which there are no internal
functional components. M2 is the second model state which is
the result of the first model state added to the new internal
functional component. Similarly, the following model state Mi
(i=3,…, n) can be established by adding the subsequent inter-
nal functional component, and the final model state Mn is the
complete topological model. By evaluating the stress/strain
behavior on each key component, a special adding sequence
for the construction of multi model states is listed in Fig. 5. It
should be noted that the first 6 model states are the simplified
topological models, and the last one is the detailed model
which is used as a calculation reference in the following anal-
ysis.
4.2 Stress convergence analysis
It is known that the load-bearing capacity of cylinder head
mainly depends on the thickness of the key components [15,
 J. Hong et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614 2611

Fig. 7. The stress convergence profiles of different key components in M6.

16]. For this reason, the parametric analysis is used to study where X is a design vector, xi is the thickness of the i-th key
how the design parameter changes affect the stress/strain be- component, W0 is the total weight of cylinder head, Wi (X) is
haviors of cylinder head. In the present analysis, a series of the weight of the i-th key component and f(X) is the maximum
different model states (M1 to M6) are considered. Fig. 6 pro- stress on cylinder head.
vides details about the influence of the key components’ Before the analysis continues, several assumptions concern-
thickness on the Von Mises maximum stress. It can be seen ing both the objective and constraint functions are made as
that the increase of the thickness will eventually lead to a follows: (1) the objective function f(X) is a continuous deriv-
stress convergence on the cylinder head. However, different able function; (2) the constraint function Wi (X) can be ex-
key components have different convergence values. pressed as Wi = xi Ai ρ. Ai and ρ are the surface area (m2) and
Fig. 7 shows the stress convergence profiles of different key material density (kg m-3) of the i-th key component, respec-
components in model state 6. It can be found that when the tively.
thickness of the bottom deck increases to 30 mm, the overall The necessary conditions for a local minimum solution are
maximum stress will converge to 121 MPa. The converged the Lagrange conditions [17-19]:
values of the stress and thickness are (133 MPa, 35 mm), (139
Mpa, 15 mm), (136 MPa, 16 mm), (124 Mpa, 9.5 mm), (123 (a) ∂f ∂xi + λ ⋅ ∂W ∂xi = 0
Mpa, 10 mm) and (142 Mpa, 24 mm) for the top deck, in-
(b) W ( X ) − W0 = 0
let/exhaust side decks, inlet/exhaust ports, and intermediate
deck respectively. This kind of difference indicates that there (c) ximin ≤ xi ≤ ximax (i =1, …, n ). (2)
exists a ‘balanced point’ among the key components. At this
point, an ideal compromise would be acquired between the Multiplying the numerator and denominator in Eq. (2a) by
weight reduction (i.e., components’ thickness) and the load- (Wi /Ai ρ), it can be expressed as follows:
bearing capacity improvement (i.e., Von Mises maximum
stress). ∂f ∂W  W  ∂f  Wi  ∂W
− = − i  ⋅  ⋅ =λ (3)
5. Weight distribution criterion for optimal design of
∂xi∂xi  Ai ρ  ∂xi  Ai ρ  ∂xi
cylinder head ∂f ∂W
i.e. −Wi ⋅ Wi ⋅ =λ (4)
5.1 Representation of the ‘balanced point’ – the weight dis- ∂Wi ∂Wi
tribution criterion
because
The meaningful and practical optimization of the load-
bearing capacity for the cylinder head ought to be pursued n

with a weight limit as a critical boundary condition. However, W ( X ) − W0 = ∑W − W

i =1
i 0 =0. (5)
keeping the weight of each key component to be the minimum
does not always guarantee the best solution in the design.
Based on the analysis given in the previous section, there ex- Then,
ists an optimal solution called ‘balanced point’. At this point,
the component weights follow a distribution in such a way
 n

that the Von Mises stress will be minimized while the total
weight of cylinder head is fixed. Therefore, the optimal design
∂W ∂Wi = ∂ 


∑W 
i =1
i ∂Wi = 1 . (6)

problem can be expressed as follows:

Substituting Eq. (6) into Eq. (4) gives:
X = ( x1 , x2, ⋯, xn )
T
Find:
Objective: Min ( f ( X ) ) 1  ∂f 
n W = ⋅  −W ⋅ . (7)
i λ  i ∂W 
Subject to: W ( X ) − W0 = ∑
i =1
Wi ( X ) − W0 = 0  i 

ximin ≤ xi ≤ ximax (i =1, …, n ) (1) Substituting Eq. (7) into Eq. (5), the Lagrange multiplier λ
2612 J. Hong et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614

can be written as:

n
 ∂f 
∑  −W ⋅ ∂W  .
1
= W0 (8)
λ i =1
i
i

Substituting Eq. (8) into Eq. (7), the weight of the i-th key
component can be determined as:
Fig. 8. Design variables used in the present research work.
 ∂f 
n
 ∂f  
Wi =  −Wi ⋅
 ∂

Wi  ∑  −W ⋅ ∂W  ⋅W .
i =1
i
i
0 (9)

Noticing that

∂f ∂f ∂f
Wi ⋅ = Ai ρ xi ⋅ = xi ⋅ (10)
∂Wi ∂ ( Ai ρ xi ) ∂xi

then
Fig. 9. Iteration histories of the objective function.

 ∂f 
n
 ∂f  
Wi =  − xi ⋅
 ∂

xi  ∑  − x ⋅ ∂x  ⋅W .
i =1
i
i
0 (11) distribution of different key components. These recursion
formulas can be solved by an iteration method, and in order to
improve the convergence of the calculation process, a relaxa-
Let tion factor α is introduced into the equations:
(k )
 ∂f  W0  Di 
xi (
k +1)
=α ⋅ + (1 − α ) ⋅ xi ( ) (i =1, …, n ). (16)
k
Di =  − xi ⋅  (i=1,…,n) (12) ⋅ 
∂xi  Ai ρ  D0 

n
 ∂f 
D0 = ∑  − xi ⋅
i =1 
∂

xi 
(i=1,…,n). (13) The finite differential calculation technique, which is rela-
tively straightforward and easy to implement by using the
ANSYS® embedded computational module, is utilized to cal-
From Eqs. (11)-(13), the weight of the i-th key component culate the weight factor Di(k) and D0(k):
can be expressed in simplified form:
 ∂f 
Di =  − xi ⋅ 
D ∂xi 
Wi = i ⋅W0 (i =1, …, n ) (14) 
D0 (i =1, …, n ). (17)
  f ( xi + ∆xi ) − f ( xi )  
≈  − xi ⋅  
where Di is defined as the weight factor of the i-th key com- 
 ( ∆xi ) 

ponent. This factor represents the decreasing rate of the objec-
tive function with the increase of xi. D0 is the sum of the
5.2 Optimization of the cylinder head structure
weight factors of all the key components in the cylinder head.
From Eq. (14), it can be found that in an optimal cylinder To validate the effectiveness of the proposed weight distri-
head structure, the actual weight of the i-th key component Wi bution criterion, the simplified model (M6) is employed to
is proportional to the value of its weight factor Di. In the case conduct the optimization study. Fig. 8 shows the design vari-
that xi is the thickness of the key component, a set of the ables used in this research.
weight distribution criterion equations can be further estab- For comparison, two methods are used in the optimization
lished in the following way: study: (1) adopting the optimization strategy based on the
weight distribution criterion and (2) utilizing the optimization
W0 Di algorithm available in ANSYS® [20]. The two processes are
xi = ⋅ (i =1, …, n ). (15)
Ai ρ D0 denoted by Optimal_1and Optimal_2, respectively. The itera-
tion histories of the maximum Von Mises stress are presented
Eq. (15) provides an opportunity to search for the ‘balanced in Fig. 9.
point’ among the main design parameters in terms of weight Compared with the calculation result from the commercial
 J. Hong et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (10) (2011) 2607~2614 2613

Table 2. Comparison of the actual weight distribution of each key

component between the original and optimal design schemes.

W1/W0 W2/W0 W3/W0 W4/W0 W5/W0 W6/W0 W7/W0

Original 0.231 0.346 0.125 0.102 0.052 0.041 0.103
Optimal_1 0.211 0.316 0.135 0.122 0.057 0.051 0.108
Optimal_2 0.220 0.309 0.131 0.121 0.059 0.054 0.106

(a)
Table 3. Comparison of the weight factor distribution of each key
component between the original and optimal design schemes.

D1 /D0 D2 /D0 D3 /D0 D4 /D0 D5 /D0 D6 /D0 D7 /D0

Original 0.191 0.258 0.136 0.122 0.053 0.046 0.194
Optimal_1 0.215 0.308 0.136 0.123 0.058 0.050 0.110
Optimal_2 0.214 0.304 0.124 0.117 0.049 0.059 0.133

optimization tool box, it is evident that a much better solution

is obtained by using the proposed weight distribution criterion.
For instance, in the Optimal_1 process, the final value of the
objective function (136.5 Mpa) is lower than the one from the
latter process (144.2 Mpa). Furthermore, after 2 iterations, the
calculation result (141.3 Mpa) from Optimal_1 is already
lower than the final solution in Optimal_2. In addition, the
Optimal_1 process also has a faster convergence speed than
the latter process. That is, the CPU time can be reduced sub-
stantially by using the proposed criterion approach.
Table 2 and Table 3 list the numerical values of the actual
weight distribution and weight factor distribution for each key
component of cylinder head, respectively.
According to the conclusion given in the proposed weight
distribution criterion, in an ideal optimal cylinder head struc-
ture, the actual weight of each key component (Wi) should be
proportional to the value of their weight factor (Di). That
means the mean square deviation σ should be exactly equal to
zero.
2 ideal ‘balanced point’ in terms of weight distribution of the
n
 Wi 
∑
Di
σ=  − 1 = 0 (i =1, …, 7)
i =1  W0 D0  the commercial software, the proposed approach is able to
In other words, the smaller the value of the mean square de-
viation σ, the better the design solution will be in the optimiza-
tion process. Fig. 10 shows the quantitative comparison of the
σ between the original and optimal design.
As anticipated, the calculation results are generally in
agreement with the theoretical predictions. For instance, the
value of σ from the original design (0.6265) is larger than the
value from the optimal design. Furthermore, the value of σ
from the Optimal_1 design is 0.0466, which is smaller than
the value from the Optimal_2 design (0.3090). It clearly indi-
cates that the proposed weight distribution criterion is more
effective than the commercial tool box during the optimization
process.
(b)
Fig. 10. Comparison of the mean square deviation σ between the origi-
nal and optimal design schemes.
6. Conclusions
This study is an initial attempt to search for a concrete and
practical procedure for the optimal design of engine cylinder
head. A simplified topological model composed of beam, shell
and membrane elements is developed to simulate the real cyl-
inder head. With this model, the finite element method can be
easily and economically employed to conduct the parametric
analysis. Calculation results indicate that the increase of the
key component’s thickness will eventually lead to a stress
convergence on the cylinder head. However, different compo-
nents have different convergence values. This shows that there
exists an ideal ‘balanced point’ among the key components. A
simple and practical optimization criterion is then developed
based on Lagrange conditions. This criterion represents the
(18) key components. Compared with the optimization result from
produce a much better solution in respect of both the conver-
gence speed and the final value of the objective function.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the National
Natural Science Foundation of China, Project No: 50935006
and the National High Technology Research and Develop-
ment Program of China, Project No: 2009AA04Z147 for pro-
viding financial support for this study.
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Jun Hong received his B.S. degree in
Mechanical Engineering from North
University of China, Taiyuan, China, in
1989. He then received his M.S. and
Ph.D degree in Mechanical Engineering
from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an,
China, in 1994 and 2001, respectively.
Dr. Hong is currently a professor of
Mechanical Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University and the
vice director of Rapid Manufacturing National Engineering
Research Center. His research interests are in the area of mul-
tidisciplinary design optimization, computational mechanics
and knowledge based engineering.
Baotong Li received his B.S. and M.S.
degrees in Mechanical Engineering
from Central South University, Chang-
sha, China, in 2004 and 2007,
respectively. He is currently a Ph.D
candidate at the College of Mechanical
Engineering in Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an, China, and presently
being a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, U.S.A. Li’s research interests include: engine operation
process simulation, computational mechanics and structure
optimization.