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The concept of an air‐gap insulated piston has been explored using bolted and welded/roll bonded designs. Pistons with bolted‐on crowns demonstrated the effectiveness of air gap insulation, but roll bonded and welded designs were found to be more robust and to provide the complete sealing of the air gap necessary for continued insulation. Evolution of the design to combine high insulation with adequate durability is discussed. Engine running times of up to 200 hours at full load have been achieved for an air gap piston which reduces heat flow to the crown by 33 per cent. An improved design giving 41 per cent reduction of heat flow has been tested for 78 hours at full engine load with no evident deterioration. Development is continuing to provide a fully durable piston achieving up to 50 per cent reduction in heat flow.

This paper aims to provide a reliable and efficient numerical piston–cylinder design method and assess the effect of clearance on the piston-cylinder lubrication.

Numerical analyses of lubrication characteristics were performed for the piston–cylinder interface. The axial piston was numerically modeled, and the film pressure was calculated using the unsteady two-dimensional Reynolds equation. The behavior of the piston was analyzed by calculating the eccentricity satisfying the force and moment balance.

The secondary motion of the piston included numerically simulated several cycles until the piston behavior converged, and contact with the inner wall of the cylinder and friction region was estimated. Results showed that the piston–cylinder clearance affected the contact force, length of the contact region and leakage flow rate.

This result improves the understanding of the piston–cylinder lubrication and suggests considerations in terms of lubrication in clearance design.

The drive shaft and the distribution shaft of a traditional radial piston pump are in a cantilever state. To solve this problem, this paper aims to present a radial piston pump with through shaft driving and valve plate distribution.

The working principle of the pump is discussed in detail. In this radial piston pump, valve plate distribution parts are designed to distribute oil to the piston chambers, and the distribution shaft is replaced. A bearing is installed between the stator and rotator to reduce the friction. The transmission shaft is supported by two bearings to ensure smooth operation. The support force of the transmission shaft is optimized. In addition, the flow pulsation principle is presented. To accomplish the change, the displacement of the radial piston pump, the proportional control system is designed.

After completing the machining and assembly of the pump, an experimental study was carried out. The results show that the output flow of the pump is basically the same as the theoretical flow.

The friction between the slipping shoes and the stator is greatly reduced due to the function of rolling bearings. The higher stability of the driveshaft is obtained for the reason of double-sided support. The radial piston pump has a novel structural design in reducing the friction between the shoes and the stator and improving the stability of the transmission shaft.

Because of the specific structure and working mechanism, piston speed is only half of its shaft, which causes severally friction between piston and cylinder. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the friction and wear characteristics of the incomplete spherical piston in spherical pump comprehensively. Finally, to search the low-friction and wear-resistance structural pattern of the piston, and enhance the durability of spherical pump.

The non-linear frictional moment model for incomplete spherical piston in spherical pump was derivated quantificationally. Parameter sensitivity analyses were conducted to find the low-friction structural pattern of the piston. The theoretical wear model of piston–cylinder pair is proposed as well.

To reduce the frictional moment between incomplete piston and cylinder, the optimised diameter ratio between piston pin and piston should be 0.12 based on the parameter sensitivity analyses. The maximum frictional moment is approximately 2.5 times of the minimum. The total efficiency should be considered synthetically based on the thickness of specific working medium.

The proposed non-linear frictional moment model offers the quantitative estimations. Parameter sensitivity analyses were conducted to find the low-friction structural pattern of the piston. The wear behaviours of the piston and cylinder were analysed to investigate the wear characteristics of the piston.

Currently, lubrication analysis of piston ring is generally done under engine rated operating condition. However, the engine (such as the vehicle engine) does not always operate in rated operating condition, and its operating condition changes frequently in actual use. In addition, the lubrication status of piston ring is generally assumed as the flooded lubrication or a certain form of poor lubrication in most of the lubrication analysis.

In this paper, based on the equations about the flow rate of lubricating oil and the variation of control volume, the flow model of lubricating oil in the piston ring-cylinder liner conjunction is established. The lubrication analysis of piston ring for a four-stroke engine under different engine operating conditions is done, in which the lubricating oil at the inlet of piston ring is considered as the lubricating oil attached on the relevant location of cylinder wall after the piston ring moves over at the previous stroke.

There is remarkable difference for the lubrication characteristics of the piston ring under different engine operating conditions. The worst lubrication status of piston ring may not take place under engine rated operating condition.

In this paper, based on the measured engine cylinder pressure, the lubrication analysis of piston ring for a four-stroke engine under different engine operating conditions is done in which the lubricating oil supply condition at the inlet of piston ring is considered. The results of this paper are helpful for the design and research of engine piston ring-cylinder liner conjunction.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utilization of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method for moving‐boundary/deforming‐domain micro‐scale gas flow problems. Furthermore, a hydrodynamic model, proposed in the literature, is used to compare its results with those obtained using the DSMC method.

A micro‐scale adiabatic piston problem is analyzed using a parallel DSMC implementation for deforming domains. Initially, pressures at both sides of the piston wall are different. Consequently, frictionless piston moves toward low‐pressure compartment, keeps oscillating from one side to the other. Eventually, the piston reaches the “Mechanical equilibrium” state. Although the temperatures are different, pressures are equal at this state. The unsteady problem is analyzed until it reaches this state. Three test cases, all with the same initial conditions but different piston masses are analyzed. The time variation of the piston position, conditions in the compartments separated by the piston, are presented and compared with the results obtained from a hydrodynamic model proposed in the literature.

The results show that the DSMC and hydrodynamic results agree for the case where the piston mass is much larger than the mass of the gas inside the cylinder. But for other two cases, where the piston mass is smaller, piston motion, and conditions in the compartments separated by the piston differ for the two methods. This is attributed to the linear velocity distribution assumption of the hydrodynamic model. The DSMC results demonstrate that this assumption is not valid for cases where the piston mass is equal or less than the mass of the gas inside the cylinder.

Implementation of the DSMC method for problems with deforming domain is presented and a limitation for applicability of hydrodynamic model for these problems is shown.

Investigations are carried out with the aim of improving performance of a diesel engine with the design modification on piston crown to stimulate the uniform combustion by inducing turbulence in the incoming charge.

A stirrer is introduced at the top of the piston so as to inculcate more turbulence to the incoming charge by improving the rate of fuel vaporization. Whirling motion is created in the combustible mixture by providing rotating blades on the cavity/bowl of the reciprocating piston head. By putting a simple link mechanism, the oscillatory motion of connecting rod will rotate the blade by an angle of 60°.

The investigations are carried out with and without swirl piston at 17.5 compression ratio and 200 bar injection pressure by varying injection timings.

Finally, the result shows that by using the modified piston, nearly 3 per cent of efficiency increased and 31 per cent of NOx emissions are reduced compared to that of a normal piston with 80 per cent load at standard injection timing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate flow behavior of electrorheological (ER) fluid in a closed piston–cylinder system.

A basic study of flow characteristics of ER fluid in a damper model is conducted experimentally and numerically. The electric field is applied between inner wall of the cylinder and outer wall of the piston, and the pressure difference between upper and lower chamber of the cylinder is measured. A numerical prediction of ER fluid flow in the damper model system is performed in order to study the ER fluid flow characteristics. Visualization experiment is also made and used to qualitatively verify the numerical formulation.

The agreement between the numerical predictions and experimental results is encouraging, and the ER fluid flow patterns under different piston aspect ratios, movement speeds and applied electric field strengths are presented. The results show that the piston aspect ratio has much smaller influence on the ER flow pattern than other influencing factors. Increasing piston movement speed or reducing the electric field applied is helpful to reduce the pressure response time period, which is an important indicator showing sensitiveness of the damper. It is also seen that the pressure difference between the upper and lower chamber of the cylinder increases with the electric field strength and the piston movement speed.

First time the detailed investigation into the hydrodynamics behavior in such working models of engineering applications for ER fluid.

This paper aims to revel the leakage characteristics of the bent-axis piston pump considering elastohydrodynamic deformation via a dynamic leakage model.

A dynamic leakage model of bent-axis piston pump based on elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory is proposed, which is used to present the leakage characteristics of bent-axis piston pump. The model is composed of three parts. First, the dynamic gap in the piston ring-cylinder bore interface (PRCB) is described via the elastohydrodynamic lubrication equations. Then, the PRCB leakage is presented based on the dynamic gap. Finally, combined with leakage equation of the valve plate-cylinder block interface (VPCB), the total leakage model is proposed. Through the numerical simulation and experiment, the leakage characteristics of bent-axis piston pump considering elasto-hydrodynamic deformation are studied.

The PRCB leakage is negatively correlated with VPCB leakage under the range of 800–1400 r/min and 1–25 MPa. When the discharge pressure is less than the critical pressure, the PRCB leakage is the main factor affecting the total leakage in bent-axis piston pump. On the contrary, the VPCB leakage is the main factor. The critical pressure increases with increasing speed

The effect of operating parameters has a significant effect on the elastic deformation of piston ring without considering wear of friction pairs in bent-axis piston pump. There is a critical phenomenon in the leakage, which is related to the operating parameters, and provides a novel idea for extracting wear information from leakage and evaluating the status of bent-piston pump.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the energy losses factors during the hydro-mechanical conversion process at high pressure via a novel reduced order dynamic model.

A novel reduced order dynamic model of the axial piston motor was proposed, which provides an explicit insight to the compression flow losses and the Coulomb friction losses. A fully coupled dynamic model of the piston motor was obtained based on the array bond graph method. And then, a reduced order model was obtained by the composition analysis of flow and torque of the axial piston motor. After that, the energy losses estimation model was presented to predict the energy loss of the piston motor under a wide range of working conditions. The model was verified by comparing the experimental and simulation results.

The simulation result indicates that the flow loss caused by oil compression accounts for 59 per cent of the total flow loss, and the Coulomb friction torque accounts for 40 per cent of the total torque loss under a specific working condition. The compression flow loss and Coulomb friction torque are the major factors that lead to the aggravation of energy loss under extreme working conditions of the piston motor.

At high-pressure condition, the compression flow losses due to fluid compressibility cannot be neglected, and the hydro-mechanical losses in varies friction pairs should involve Coulomb friction losses. Flow and torque loss analytical expression in the model involve the design and control parameters of the piston equipment, which can realize the parameter optimization of the piston equipment for the purpose of energy-saving.