For upgrading/new engine development, the piston and cylinder head are the most exposed members due to amplified mechanical and thermal loadings. Mechanical loading is basically due to the combustion gas pressure in the combustion chamber and its scale can be judged in terms of peak cylinder pressure. Thermal loading is due to temperature by heat flux acting on the piston surface, cylinder liner and the cylinder head. The importance of the various loads applied on the head and cylinder block in operation was assessed and a method of predicting their influence on the structural integrity of the components described by doing actual test on engine test bench.
Therefore, it’s very important to have thermal survey of the engine. The engine thermal survey test was primarily developed to measure the temperature in the head of the engine to determine if the temperatures that are measured are within the design guidelines for appropriate engine operation. Detailed thermal survey and simulation should be completed which will be helpful in evaluating structural integrity and corrections can be done in design before part release.
This paper deals with the correlation of actual thermal survey test data with FEA thermal simulation results, using worst case scenarios. Simulation result was correlated with experimental data with error band of ±6%.
For better development of engine, this test should be performed in early development cycle. It will also be very useful for gasket sealing during early design stage to reduce the prototyping cost and time.