Simulation Driven Design and Development of MLS Gasket Assembly

It is quite common nowadays to target a new engine development program in less than twelve months. Computer Aided Engineering plays a major role in reducing the overall product development lead time. Simulation Driven Design and Development helps the designers to bring the necessary confidence about the required functionality during the design stage itself. The current paper describes the development of Multi-Layer Steel (MLS) cylinder-head gaskets for a commercial vehicle engine. Currently, many engine manufacturers from the developing countries have either started shifting to MLS Gaskets for their current product lines or started new engine platforms development with MLS Gaskets to meet the current emission and specific power requirements. These gaskets with beads and stoppers provide excellent macro sealing around combustion chamber, oil bores and water holes under aggressive thermo-mechanical loads. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations play a major role in studying the gasket and cylinder head assembly performance. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations provide reliable thermal boundary conditions for FEA simulations. The current paper studies the sealing effectiveness of the gasket under adverse loading conditions including bolt tightening, combustion pressure and thermal loads. The paper also studies the effect of liner protrusion on the bore distortion behavior. The thermo-mechanical calculations for the study were performed using ABAQUS FEA solver. It is observed that the suggested simulation driven design approach has reduced the time for gasket design and development to less than 4 months which would have otherwise taken more than a year for the design finalization.