Evaluating the Effects of Ceramic Layer and Thermal Dam on Optimizing the Temperature Gradient of a Gasoline Engine Piston

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of different methods for improving the temperature gradient of a specified gasoline engine piston. With a robust finite element (FE) based software, 3D thermal analyses have been carried out for the piston model. Unlike previous studies, the effects of both fully and locally ceramic layers on the crown top surface were considered. It was found that a fully ceramic layer provides just 10-15% more thermal protection. The effects of thermal dam and lubricating oil temperature on crown and skirt surfaces were then separately investigated. Using these methods, the maximum surface temperature of the piston was greatly improved and the temperature distribution of piston skirt was effectively controlled.