Thermo-mechanical coupling strength analysis of a diesel engine piston based on finite element method

Due to improvements in diesel engine power and performance, the piston in the combustion chamber is subjected increasingly higher thermal and mechanical loads. The cyclic changes in thermal and mechanical stresses seriously affect the piston fatigue life. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the strength of the piston in the design process. In this paper, the finite element analysis of piston under thermal, mechanical and thermo-mechanical loads coupling is carried out by using the ANSYS software. By analyzing the heat and force distributions on the piston, the stress and strain distributions on the piston can be obtained, so as to determine the maximum stress concentration areas and check whether the piston strength meets the requirements. Results indicate that the highest temperature on the piston appears at the top of the combustion chamber bulge, where the deformations of the piston and combustion chamber are the most serious. There is a large stress concentration in the contact between the piston pin seat, the piston pin hole and the piston. The minimum number of piston cycles is 1.2x10(6) times, which meets the piston cycle number from starting, running, and to stopping process. Thus the strength of the diesel engine piston meets the requirements.