Finite Element Analysis of the Piston Thermal Load in a Diesel Engine

Three-dimensional modeling and finite element analysis on the diesel engine piston is carried out in the paper. The distribution of temperature, stress and strain within piston at the rated conditions of the engine are obtained from the simulation. The calculated temperature is consistent with the results of the piston surface temperature which is obtained by hardness plug method, thus confirming the model's validity. The calculated maximum temperature is 374 °C and the minimum temperature is 144 °C. The maximum stress is 118MPa located between the piston skirt above the pin hole and the third ring groove. The maximum thermal strain appears at the piston top with the value of 6.29×10-3. Finally, the temperature simulation of the piston adopted oil-splashing cooling is implemented. It is proved that thermal load can be further reduced through cooling measure.