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Tribological characteristics of piston rings in a single-piston hydraulic free-piston engine

Zhaoju Qin (School of Mechanical Engineering, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, China)
Chenheng Yuan (College of Traffic and Transportation, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, China)
Yanpeng Yuan (School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
Yuanyuan Huang (School of Mechanical Engineering, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, China)

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology

ISSN: 0036-8792

Article publication date: 13 March 2017

221

Abstract

Purpose

A free-piston engine (FPE) is an unconventional engine that abandons the crank system. This paper aims to focus on a numerical simulation for the lubricating characteristics of piston rings in a single-piston hydraulic free-piston engine (HFPE).

Design/methodology/approach

A time-based numerical simulation program was built using Matlab to define the piston motion of the new engine. And a lubrication mode of piston rings was built which is based on the gas flow equation, hydrodynamic lubrication equation and the asperity contact equation. The piston motion and the lubrication model are coupled, and then the finite difference method is used to obtain the piston rings lubrication performances of the FPE. Meanwhile, the lubrication characteristics of the new engine were compared with those of a corresponding conventional crankshaft-driven engine.

Findings

The study results indicate that compared with the traditional engine, the expansion stroke of the HFPE is longer, and the compression stroke is shorter. Lubrication oil film of the new engine is thicker than the traditional engine during the initial stage of compression stroke and the final stage of the power stroke. The average friction force and power of the hydraulic free piston engine are slightly lower than those of the traditional engine, but the peak friction power of the FPE is significantly greater than that of the traditional engine. With an increase in load, the friction loss power and friction loss efficiency decrease, and with a decrease in equivalence ratio, the friction power loss reduces, but the friction loss efficiency decreases first and then increases.

Research limitations/implications

In this paper, only qualitative analysis was performed on the tribological difference between conventional crankshaft engine and HFPE, instead of a quantitative one.

Practical implications

This paper contributes to the tribological design method of HFPE.

Social implications

No social implications are available now, as the HFPE is under the development phase. However, the authors are positive that their work will be commercialized in the near future.

Originality/value

The main originality of the paper can be introduced as follows: the lubrication and friction characteristics of the new engine (HFPE) were investigated and revealed, which have not been studied before; the effect of the HFPE’s special piston motion on the tribological characteristics was considered in the lubrication simulation. The results show that compared with the traditional crankshaft engine, the new engine shows a different lubrication performance because of its free piston motion.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by Key Projects of Scientific Research of institutions of higher learning in Henan Province (15A470017), and also by scientific and technological project in Henan Province (172102210052).

Citation

Qin, Z., Yuan, C., Yuan, Y. and Huang, Y. (2017), "Tribological characteristics of piston rings in a single-piston hydraulic free-piston engine", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 69 No. 2, pp. 131-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILT-01-2015-0011

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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