Numerical study of piston skirt-liner lubrication considering the effects of deformation in internal combustion engines

This paper presents a comprehensive lubrication model for piston skirt-liner system of internal combustion engines. In the model it is included that the effects of the surface roughness, the piston skirt surface geometry, the piston pin offset, the crankshaft offset, and the lubricant viscosity on the piston secondary motion and lubrication performance. Especially, the effects of the thermal and the elastic deformation of the piston skirt and the cylinder liner, and the piston skirt deformations due to the combustion pressure and the piston axial inertia, are considered as the key task in this study. The results show that the combustion force, the working temperature and the piston axial inertia all play important roles in the piston-skirt lubrication. Also, considering the elastic deformation of the piston skirt and the cylinder liner is beneficial to the prediction of piston-skirt lubrication more accurately. The developed program in this study can provide a useful tool for the analysis of the piston-liner system lubrication problem.