Effect of Thermal Barrier Coating on Piston Crown for Compressed Natural Gas with Direct Injection Engine

Abstract:

The top land of a piston normally known as the piston crown is an engine part that is continuously exposed to extreme temperature and pressure during combustion. For a compression ratio level, the compressed natural gas with a direct injection system (CNGDI) typically uses a range of compression ratio between gasoline and diesel engines, producing extremely high temperature and pressure which lead to high thermal stresses. Consequently, the piston crown is exposed to direct combustion due to the vertical movement of the piston, leading to various possible damages of thermal stresses. In contrast to a petrol fuelled internal combustion engine, natural gas combustion creates a dry condition in the combustion chamber, inducing cooling difficulties in the engine. Without good heat transfer, the piston crown materials will soon fail to withstand high temperature and operate effectively. Alternatively, any sort of insulation inside the combustion chamber such as applying ceramic coatings may protect the piston crown surface and affect the overall combustion process, as well as improving the engine performance and the exhaust emissions. By reducing the heat loss of a cylinder bore, a higher thermal efficiency of an engine can also be improved by applying a surface thermal insulation, namely; thermal barrier coating (TBC). Thus, in this study, a ceramic based TBC, yttria partially stabilised zirconia (YPSZ) coating was used to compare with conventional tin coated (Na2SnO3) and uncoated piston crown in terms of heat concentration. Moreover, a set of average value of combustion temperature of a CNGDI engine was selected. Detailed analyses using a finite element analysis (FEA) technique was utilised in order to determine the location of hotspots via distribution profiles of temperature. It was noted that the maximum heat flux of the uncoated piston crown was much higher than that of tin coated and YPSZ coated piston crown. Heat flux value reached about 62% of decrement due to lower conductivity levels of piston crown.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 52-54)
• Pages: 1830-1835
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.52-54.1830
• Online since: March 2011
• Authors: A.J. Helmisyah, Shahrir Abdullah, Mariyam Jameelah Ghazali
• Keywords: Compress Natural Gas, Direct Injection, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Hotspot, Piston Crown, Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC)

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