Development of a Diesel Engine Piston by Incorporating Heat-Pipe Technology A FEM Modeling of the A Simulated Piston Crown

The first part of this series of papers reports the development of a simulated piston crown with an annular reciprocating heat pipe and the investigation on the effect of heat-pipe cooling on the piston-crown temperature distribution. This paper presents the modeling of the simulated piston crown with the finite-element method and the analysis of its thermal performance. The heat-transfer coefficient with respect to the reciprocal environment of the experimental apparatus and the effective thermal conductance of the annular heat pipe are determined by correlating the modeling with the experimental measurements. The numerical modeling agrees well with the experimental results. The analyses indicate that the heat-pipe cooling technology can provide an effective means for piston temperature control.